A Certain Level Upper
by StoriedMagi
Summary: "I... I want to become stronger... I want to become better... I just want to become... Something else." A gender bent version of the first arc of A Certain Scientific Railgun.
1. Chapter 1

_**This work is based (mostly) on the work of Kazuma Kamachi and other writers. A translation from Baka Tsuki was used in its creation and I claim no ownership over their work. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

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… _Really now… Did I really need to be lectured for half an hour just because my Level didn't go up? I know this the third month in a row that my performance with my ability hasn't improved… But it's not like I've had a lot of time to practice using it._

As he thought this, Kaname Tomohisa scratched the back of his head and sighed in a melancholic way. In his hands was a sheet of paper that had text detailing results from a variety of tests that had been run on the boy that day. However, of all the text on the paper only the heading at the bottom held any meaning to the student. It read in bold characters: System Scan Results: Esper Level: 1.

Tomohisa sighed yet again and began to look at the other people walking by him. As was normal in Academy City, Tomohisa was surrounded on all sides by students, though since he was in a more central area of the city most of the people around him were in different grades and went to different schools.

Yet despite the differences between the people walking on the street, everyone had pieces of paper that said similar things to the one Tomohisa held. The reactions to these pieces of paper were different of course, and could be grouped into 3 broad categories.

The first category was excitement over the results, which was generally shared by students who were younger than Tomohisa, who was a first year in middle school, or at most two years older. Even as he watched in silence, Tomohisa saw a group of elementary school students talking excitedly with each other about how much they had grown.

The second category of reactions was the melancholic ones, much like the one that Tomohisa had. These reactions were generally shared by Espers who had not shown any improvement for some time.

The final category, and the one that worried Tomohisa the most, was reacting to the paper in anger. As he watched, Tomohisa noticed one person in particular, a high schooler that looked like the textbook definition of a delinquent. He watched as the older student looked at his results with disgust, crumbling it up and throwing it away before disappearing into one of the alleyways of the city.

Tomohisa watched the high schooler go with a wary eye before sighing again and fishing through his pockets for his phone.

… _Really now… Is it really going to be one of those days? I understand feeling sad at the results… but still._

Finding his phone, Tomohisa quickly pulled it out and opened up his messaging app to the start screen. He instantly hit the most recent tab for the app, which was titled 'Shirai-san'.

' **Shirai-san. I would just like to check are we still meeting up today to write that report? It's looking like idiots are going to be out and about today due to the System Scan. Don't you think that we should check in with Senpai before doing anything?"**

Tomohisa's hit the send button on his phone sighing and keeping an eye out on his surroundings. As he looked around he saw many more people going over their system scan results with the first two reactions, but every once in a while he saw someone walking around with a pissed off look on their faces.

Within moments Tomohisa's phone buzzed, indicating that he had received a message. He opened up his phone app quickly and began reading Tetsuya's message to him, while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

 _ **You don't have to worry about it Tomohisa. I've already contacted Senpai and he said to simply keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. So it does look like we should keep with our original plan.**_

Tomohisa sighed at Tetsuya's response and briefly wondered if everything would be alright if he left it like that. He typed up a new message to Tetsuya and sent it with a hesitant press of a button.

' **I see… Well if that's what Senpai said I guess we have no choice but to accept it. So I'll meet you at the restaurant over in the Twelfth District, right?'**

Tomohisa patiently waited for a reply as he continued to walk down the street, diverting his path somewhat so that he could take the short path to his and Tetsuya's meeting place. Two or three minutes passed before Tomohisa received a response.

 _ **Sorry Tomohisa but could you go ahead to the restaurant without me? I just noticed something a bit… scary. I'll just take care of that and then I'll meet you there.**_

Tomohisa raised an eyebrow is confusion, and attempted to type up a response to Tetsuya.

' **Well… Okay then Tetsuya-san. I guess I can do that… But are you sure…'**

Tomohisa stopped typing suddenly, beginning to turn around on the feeling that there was something going on behind him. However, just as he was halfway through turning his head when he heard a voice and it took him less than a moment to recognize the voice. When he did he felt a sense of dread once he did.

"To-Mo-Hi-Sa!"

Tomohisa felt a slight breeze against his chest after turning his head far enough to look in the direction of the voice, where he found no one who looked like they had been the one talking to him. In fact, as Tomohisa looked at the people walking down the street near him he found that many of them were looking directly at in, their faces made up collectively of expressions of confusion and embarrassment.

Tomohisa slowly turned his gaze down to his chest, already guessing what had happened with dread. It only took a second of staring at his uncovered chest to confirm his guess, and leave himself with zero doubt as to who it was that caused this.

"… Saten-san…"

Tomohisa said this in almost a whisper, but it was filled with such anger and bitterness that it made the other passersby shiver in fear. The voice that had yelled out Tomohisa's name before his shirt disappeared now spoke again, this time coming from behind the boy.

"Oh come on now Tomo-chan, don't sound like that. If you should be angry at anyone it should be yourself, for leaving so many openings for me to exploit. For a person in Judgement, you are very bad at examining your surroundings."

Tomohisa turned his entire body so that he could look behind himself, the direction he had been walking in previously. The person who had clearly stolen Tomohisa's shirt stood there, the shirt in question slung over his shoulder, and a smile on his face.

The moment Tomohisa laid eyes on the person, his expression became tinged with a mixture of anger and annoyance.

"Saten-san… Could you please explain to me why you have my shirt in your hands? While I seriously doubt that it was for a good reason, I will listen to your explanation."

Ruriko Saten chuckled at his friend as he looked at him with a rather smug look on his face. He ran his free hand through his short and spikey black hair before gesturing at his friend with an air of mischievousness surrounding him.

"Ah… You're mad aren't you Tomo-chan? Sorry, I had just thought I should have cheered you up since you looked like you were feeling a bit down."

Tomohisa put a hand over his face as if to contain the absolute rage he felt at that moment, sighing at the idiocy of his friend.

"Saten-san… Why do you think that stripping me of my clothes in the middle of a crowded street would cheer me up in any way? Do I look like I'm some sort of exhibitionist?"

Saten looked as if he was seriously contemplating something before nodding his head in an agreeing motion. Slowly a grin began to form on Saten's face as he reached his free hand up to his own collar.

"Then how about this Tomo-chan? How about we both lose our shirts? Wouldn't that make you-…!"

Saten did not get to finish speaking, as his joke was promptly cut off by when Tomohisa's fist collided with his friends face.

* * *

"… Come on now Tomo-chan. Even if you didn't like my prank, it was still just a joke. There's no reason for you to be that angry about it, especially considering the fact that you almost knocked me out."

Tomohisa sighed as he shot Saten a gaze filled with the annoyance that he felt for his friend.

"Saten-san… Sometimes I just don't know what it is you thinking about. I must ask this for the sake of our friendship… Is it at all possible for you to act seriously?"

Saten grinned back at Tomohisa as he rubbed his cheek where the other boy had punched him. Sighing, he again put on an expression as if he were contemplating something important.

"Well… If I had to say I was overly serious about anything, it would have to be music releases. If I miss even one I feel like my soul breaks apart a little… Oh! That reminds me. A CD I've been waiting for is coming out today. That's the reason why I was coming to see you. I want you to tag along with me."

Tomohisa looked at Saten with a look of pure confusion.

"Sorry… but why would you need me to come with you to buy a CD? Couldn't you have done that without having to bother me?"

Saten began to rub the back of his head as he grinned over at Tomohisa, and Tomohisa realized that the trickster wanted something from him.

"Well… For the first 100 people who buy a CD they get part of a set of goods that, if you get the entire set, will get you into the special concert that the artist is holding in a few months' time."

Tomohisa put a hand over his face and sighed into it, shooting an annoyed look over at Saten, instantly realizing what was going on.

"And let me guess… This is a concert for that one idol isn't it? The one that you have a now famous and creepy obsession for. What was her name again?"

Saten shot Tomohisa a glare that was as if he had been personally offended by what the other boy had said.

"What the hell Tomo-chan?! How in the world could you call the feelings for Luka-chan creepy? They are pure feelings developed by watching over her career. As a side note, this next CD is an important one for her as it's the first one that will be advertised worldwide after the success of her international tour. If it goes well, then she might be able to become a world renowned star."

Tomohisa sighed and waved a hand at Saten in a dismissive manner.

"Okay, Okay. You've made your point. Could you stop being a creep for a few moments so that I could keep my lunch down?"

Saten again glared over at Tomohisa as if he had been insulted.

"Again, why are you again saying that my feelings are creepy? If anything is creepy it would have to be your obsession with the Level 5's. Admiring those pieces of trash that just flaunt their power without any care for human life has to be the stupidest thing in the world."

As soon as Saten said that it was Tomohisa's turn to look offended at what was said, looking at his friend with an insulted gaze.

"Now hold on a second there. When did it become bad to admire the Level 5's, the pinnacle of Academy City? Why can't I think that people who I want to become like are worth admiring?"

Saten shook his head in response to Tomohisa's poke back at him, sighing as he looked at him with a disapproving glare.

"Come on now Tomo-chan, you have to realize that every esper above Level 3 are some of the worst individuals in the world. Don't you have to deal with esper's abusing their powers on a regular basis?"

Tomohisa angrily glared at Saten, gesturing at his friend in anger.

"Saten-san… Please don't give me any of your inferiority complex bullshit. Judgement does not have to deal with espers who abuse their power. At worst my shifts with Judgement involve me dealing with delinquents who feel just like you do."

Saten looked at Tomohisa with a glare of wordless annoyance, opening and closing his mouth several time before sighing out his rage. After giving up Saten looks around himself and gestures at Tomohisa.

"So then Tomo-chan… Could you please tell me why we are here? Is this not the place that you have been warning me about the other day? You know… The area that was crawling with delinquents?"

Tomohisa sighed again and also looked around the surrounding area himself, more to look out for anything out of the ordinary than to check his position.

The two friends were now walking down the one of the sidewalks in the 12th District, the scene almost the exact same as where they had been earlier. There were still students walking down the street, some clutching the system scan results in excitement, while others were simply tossing them away without a care. Once in a while there was the occasional delinquent looking person walking down the street, glaring menacingly at the people holding onto to their system scan results with excitement. They were not making any motions towards causing problems, so Tomohisa simply let them be.

Tomohisa shook his head and turned back to look at Saten, who was still looking at Tomohisa for an answer.

"I don't really remember referring to it as crawling, but yes, it has become rather dangerous around here as of late. Judgement and Anti-Skill have theorized that it is some new gang that has been operating in the area, so both organizations have increased the number of patrols around here. There have been several minor incidents and many of those involved with them have been detained, but so far nothing really bad has happened."

Saten nodded in response to Tomohisa's explanation, even though his face's expression showed that he was quite worried about something. He took one more look at the surrounding area before questioning Tomohisa again.

"So… Tell me something Tomo-chan. Why are we going to a place where you wouldn't normally go unless you had a large group?"

Tomohisa shot an annoyed glare at Saten before sighing and continuing to look at the area around the two of them.

"Well… The reason I am going here is because, one, Judgement wants any free officers to stick around just in case something does happen, and, second, I am meeting Shirai-san here so that we can write up a report on a case from earlier. You are coming with me because… Why are you coming with me again?"

Saten gave Tomohisa an offended look, but it was that was more mocking as he had a smile on his face.

"Come on now Tomo-chan. There is no reason for you to act like that. I'm coming with you to keep you company until Luka-chan's CD is available."

Tomohisa now turned his entire body to look at Saten, an overly annoyed look on his face as he glared at his friend.

"In other words, 'I have absolutely nothing else to do, so to not be bored I've come along to annoy you to no end'. That's what this is, isn't it?"

Saten grinned over at his friend and gave him the thumbs up in the most mischievous way possible.

"Yep. That's the best way to put if I've ever heard it Tomo-chan."

Tomohisa put a hand over his face and nearly growled at his friend in his rage.

"Saten-san… Do you hate me or-…!?"

Whatever Tomohisa was going to say in his rage was suddenly cut off by the distinct sound of arcing electricity, and the shout of someone that was a mixture of pain and terror. Everyone on the street around the two friends stopped and looked around, trying to find the source of the noises with a concerned look on their faces.

Suddenly, coming barreling out of one of the nearby alleyways was a delinquent, running at full force as if his life depended on it. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, taking deep terrified gulps of air as he looked around the street in a desperate panic. He then began to shout out to anyone that would listen.

"He- Help me! Please! The- There's some crazy Esper bastard chasing after me! That… That bastard… He… He got my…"

As everyone on the street looked at the delinquent in a mixture of surprised confusion, Tomohisa instantly sprang into action. His hand automatically dove into his bag and pulled out a green armband with a shield icon on it, the symbol of Judgement. Putting it around his upper arm, Tomohisa ran to the side of the delinquent and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Please sir, try to calm down and speak clearly. I'm with Judgement and can help you, but I need to know everything."

The delinquent looked up at Tomohisa with a look of both relief and gratitude, a look that Tomohisa was unaccustomed to receiving from delinquents.

"Thank god… Judgement… Please, you've got to help me! That Esper bastard… He attacked me and my friends out of nowhere… and then… and then…"

The delinquent collapsed into a pile of rambling and sobbing, making it so that Tomohisa could not decipher any useful information from him. Clicking his tongue, Tomohisa looked up at the people surrounding the scene and looking on passively.

"Someone! Call Anti-Skill and give them our location. Also try to leave the area as quickly as possible. If the Esper is still around it will mean that this area is-…!?"

Just as Tomohisa was about to finish his orders, another voice spoke out and made so that his was cut off. The voice was not speaking louder than Tomohisa's, but it spoke with such a weight of tone that it somehow made it seem like it was the only voice speaking.

"There you are… Really now… You just have to give me the longest chase of my life, didn't you?"

The delinquent instantly reacted to the voice, crawling away from the source as fast and as far as possible. The delinquent then balled himself up in a fetal position while shivering in fear.

Tomohisa turned to face the source of the voice, which was the alleyway that the delinquent had run out of.

And as he looked into the shadow covered crevice between two buildings, Tomohisa felt his breath freeze in his throat.

Due to the shadows cast by the buildings that formed the alleyway, Tomohisa could not accurately make out the features of the person walking out of the alleyway, but due to the occasional flashes of blueish white electricity originating from the person's right hand, Tomohisa could make out two things for certain.

First was that the person was a boy maybe a year older than Tomohisa, probably in his second year of middle school. Second was that he had an annoyed expression on his face, and that it was directed directly at Tomohisa or, more accurately, the armband on Tomohisa's arm.

"Damn… Judgement… Of course they would show up now."

Tomohisa suddenly took a deep breath once the fellow middle schooler spoke, and realized that he had not been breathing or thinking at all during the time that they had been looking at him. Once he had regained control of his body and mind, he directed both at examining the esper and his power.

The first thing that he noticed was that the outfit that the boy was wearing belonged to one of the more prestigious schools in Academy City, and it only took Tomohisa a second to name it.

 _Isn't that… A Tokiwodai Uniform? What would someone from one of the five best schools be here?_

Even though he could not believe it, Tomohisa had no choice but to accept that it was a Tokiwodai Uniform due to his familiarity with it. The gray dress pants, white short sleeved shirt, and tan sweater vest all matched the uniform that Tomohisa had to deal with almost every day.

As for the power that the boy had, it was so blatantly obvious that Tomohisa did not even have to try and guess as to what it was. As bluish white sparks of electricity flew off the Tokiwodai student's right hand, they raced out to any nearby metal surface where they struck and disappeared instantly.

Tomohisa clicked his tongue in a bit of annoyance as he put the facts that he had together in his head.

 _An Electromaster from Tokiwodai huh? Damnit, why did this have to happen right before I was supposed to meet up with Shirai-san?... Well… the only choice I have right now is to try to solve the situation diplomatically._

Tomohisa cleared his throat and tried his best to lock eyes with the Tokiwodai student in the alleyway.

"Electromaster! Stop using your power immediately! Give me your name and class at Tokiwodai and submit yourself to-!?"

The Tokiwodai student shot Tomohisa a glare of annoyance that caused the Judgement officer's voice to stop in his throat. Once Tomohisa had stopped talking, the Tokiwodai student began speaking.

"So… Judgement guy… Could you please move out of the way?"

Tomohisa felt as if the ability to speak returned to his mouth, and once he regained it, he muttered the first thing that came to his mind.

"H-Huh? Move?... Ar-Are you talking to me?"

The Tokiwodai student nodded his head in a short, basic nod at Tomohisa, gesturing towards the delinquent who was now in a fetal position behind the Judgement officer.

"Yes… I am talking to you. Could you move so that I am able to beat the living shit out of the scum behind you? I wouldn't sit well with my conscience if I hurt you, a person who is uninvolved, along with scum of the earth like him."

Somehow, after listening to the Tokiwodai student's demand, Tomohisa grew defiant toward his fellow middle school student, glaring at him with a gaze full of righteous fury.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow that to happen. I'm certain that Anti-Skill is already on their way, and I'm certain that you know full well the consequences of attacking a person with your powers in broad daylight. If you surrender now, you might get off with being detained for the rest of the day."

The Tokiwodai student glared at Tomohisa before he sighed and shrugged in what could only be grudging realization.

"Typical Judgement… You arrive at the end of the entire situation, and then you think you are the one able to say what is going on. Of course I understand that in normal circumstances, I would look like the one causing problems, but this is still annoying to no end."

Tomohisa looked at the Tokiwodai student with a gaze of confusion, completely unsure what they were talking about.

"I… I don't know what you're going on about, but please just surrender already! We don't want this to turn into something bad, so please-!?"

The Tokiwodai student shot Tomohisa a glare that again stole his ability to speak. Once Tomohisa was quiet, the student began to speak again, this time pointing toward the delinquent yet again.

"Let me make this clear to you. All in all, I'm the victim in this situation. That piece of filth and his friends that I 'attacked' were actually attempting to extort money from me by threatening me. Once I started beating the shit out of them they were quick to change their mind about continuing that."

Tomohisa felt a bit of cold sweat roll down his neck as he continued to stare down the Tokiwodai student, moving to more aggressively stand between the student and the delinquent.

"If what you say is true, then I can understand your anger… but I still don't agree with the way that you are handling the situation! Just calm down and-…!?"

The Tokiwodai student loudly sighed in a way that made Tomohisa's speech cut off. The student raised his right hand, which began to arc more aggressively with sparks, and pointed it directly at Tomohisa.

"Listen… not to be rude or anything… but I'm tired with your bullshit right now. Now I'll give you two choices… Move out of my way… or get hurt along with the scum you are protecting."

Tomohisa bit his lip as his brain fired on all cylinders as he began to think of ways out of the rapidly degrading situation.

 _What in the world do I do? I can't fight him, and I can't just give up the guy to him. Isn't there any way to-…!?_

At the moment that Tomohisa was going to complete his thought, a familiar voice spoke out, and when it did it filled Tomohisa with dread.

"You see now Tomo-chan? Didn't I just say that all Esper's above level 3 are pieces of trash that just like to flaunt their power in whatever way possible? I don't see why you tried to negotiate with him in the first place."

Tomohisa slowly turned his head to look directly at Saten, the person who had spoken, and wordlessly looked at him in shock. Saten, who had been silent for the past few moments, was now looking at the Tokiwodai esper with an expression on his face that was a mixture of annoyance and mischievousness.

"Really now… I'm really surprised at the complete lack of self-control you espers have. I must ask… can you go even a day without going crazy with your power's? Because whenever I see an esper like you all they ever do is-…!?"

Just as Saten was reaching the conclusion of his rant, there was the sound of arcing electricity and a single bluish white lance of energy raced by the student's face. Instantly beads of sweat began to form on Saten's face as his expression froze in place.

The Tokiwodai student sighed as the wild light show that was going on around his right arm subsided. He once again glared at Tomohisa, his patience clearly close to snapping.

"Am I going to have to repeat myself?!"

Just as the Tokiwodai student finished talking and Tomohisa felt his heart beat rapidly in fear, there was yet another voice that spoke out, obviously responding to the conversation.

"Aneki… I guess I should really stop you now, shouldn't I?"

The Tokiwodai student went wide eyed and began to look around the area for the person that they had spoken, but finding no one. Tomohisa also began to look around for the source of the voice, because he recognized the voice as soon as it began to talk.

… _Shirai… san? I really hope that is him, because he might just be able to solve this in the state it's in now._

It was in the moment after Tomohisa thought that when all of his hopes of solving the situation peacefully were dashed against the rocks.

Suddenly appearing in the air directly above the Tokiwodai student, a person fell feet first on top of them, sending the student to the ground face first.

Tomohisa looked at the scene where the esper had been shoved directly to the ground with his mouth agape, and a cold sweat rolling down his neck.

The person who had landed on top of the Tokiwodai student looked down at his victim with a grim expression. Sighing, he reached up and grabbed ahold of the green armband wrapped around his right arm and faced the crowd.

"I am with Judgement! Everyone please vacate the area. This will now be looked after by Anti Skill once they arrive."

After addressing the public, who was now moving away from the scene rapidly, the new person looked towards Tomohisa and smiled.

"Well Tomohisa… How are you today? I know this is a bit earlier than when we agreed upon, but… Oh well."

Tomohisa glared at the person with an expression of pure rage as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Kuroko-san… Why in the world did you do that?!"

Shirai Kuroko, a middle schooler around Tomohisa's age with pinkish hair that reached down to his chin, looked at his partner with a smile, reaching up and rubbing the back of his head with a sigh.

"What… I thought that was a suitable way to end this. The person has been put out of commission and no one was hurt. Isn't that a satisfactory ending?"

Tomohisa gestured to the person underneath Kuroko's feet in an almost aggressive way.

"Sure it's fine now! But what happens when that guy decides to-…!?

Tomohisa had just tilted his head to look down at the person Kuroko had knocked down, and found that the person had all the symptom of a person who had been knocked out.

 _He's… so weak… How in the world could a person so intimidating get knocked out so easily?_

Kuroko chuckled at Tomohisa's reaction and gestured to the person at his feet as well.

"We don't have to worry about him getting up anytime soon and getting angry. He may seem all big and scary, but if you hit him with a good sneak attack, he goes down instantly."

Tomohisa was reminded by the matching uniforms that the Kuroko and the student at his feet were wearing that the two of them went Tokiwodai. Obviously they must have some knowledge of each other.

"Well then… do you know anything about this guy Shirai-san? We should have a little bit of info for Anti-Skill once they get here to arrest him."

Kuroko gave Tomohisa an embarrassed sidelong look as he reached up to scratch the back of his head. He looked solemnly down to his feet and sighed.

"Well… I don't think we should worry about this gut getting taken in… If anything we have to think about a way to calm him down once he wakes up."

Tomohisa tilted his head to one side in confusion, his stomach becoming upset at the wording of what Kuroko just said.

"Shirai-san… Why don't you think that this person will be taken in?"

Kuroko looked at Tomohisa with a confused look and then a look of realization graced his face.

"Ah… That's right. You've never meet him before have you?"

Kuroko reached down and grabbed ahold of the unnamed student short brown hair and drug his face up into the light for Tomohisa to see.

"This is Misaka Makoto… and he is the third Level 5 in Academy City."


	2. A Certain Meeting of Friends

_**This work is based (mostly) on the work of Kazuma Kamachi and other writers. A translation from Baka Tsuki was used in its creation and I claim no ownership over their work. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

* * *

" _Hey… Hey! Tomo-chan! Could we please leave now?! I don't know about you, but I really don't want to die today to some crazy esper!"_

Tomohisa sighed as he was elbowed in his side with every 'Hey' that Saten spouted at him, and tried his best to put on what he hoped was a pleasant smile for the company he was with.

Tomohisa and Saten were both sitting on one side of a booth inside of a family restaurant, both reacting to the dire air surrounding the scene in entirely different ways. Sitting across from the two friends was Misaka Makoto, who was staring out the window with a bored expression on his face.

Outside of the window, on the other side of the road from the restaurant, Kuroko was talking with a person from Anti-Skill, a tall man who was taking down notes on his tablet, presumably about the events that had occurred earlier.

Tomohisa sighed to himself and desperately racked his brain looking for something to say in the situation.

 _Come on, Come on! There has to be something I can say here to get a conversation going. I wouldn't want to anger him and have a repeat of earlier, but… I probably won't get this chance again. I should really just say-…!?_

Tomohisa keeled over in pain as Saten's elbow collided with the side of his stomach, sending a shock throughout the student's unprepared body. With tears in his eyes, Tomohisa looked up at his friend with a venomous glare.

" _Saten-san… Why in the world did you do that? Did I happen to do something to offend you?"_

Saten timidly looked over at Makoto, who was still looking out of the window with no interest in what was going on around him, before he sighed and looked back at Tomohisa, returning his friend's venomous glare with one of his very own.

" _Oh! I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to elbow you like that, but I couldn't get your attention because you were so busy nerding out over the crazy psychopath sitting across from us!"_

Tomohisa regained his composure somewhat after several deep breaths, before elbowing Saten in his stomach, though much rougher and in a more vulnerable spot than where he himself had been hit. Saten keeled over in a much more animated manner than Tomohisa, his head laying against the table as he gripped his stomach.

After a few moments of shallow breathing from him, Saten looked up at his friend and began to talk in a pained tone.

" _Ok… I'm sorry… I kind of deserved that… but could we please get out of here before the crazy esper decides to kill us? I really, really don't want to die today, not on the day when Luka-chan's CD is going out."_

Tomohisa sighed and waved away Saten's concerns.

" _Come on now Saten-san. I'm certain that won't happen. If we just talked to him I'm certain that we'll find that he is a most pleasant individual."_

Saten clearly did not believe in anything that Tomohisa said, but Tomohisa ignored that and turned to face Makoto, who was still looking out the window, as if the two friends weren't even there.

Tomohisa cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak. The second he was about to start, Makoto turned his head to look at Tomohisa. The second the two boys locked eyes, Tomohisa felt all the breath freeze in place out of some sort of innate fear of the person in front of him. It wasn't that Makoto was doing anything that caused Tomohisa to be afraid, since all they were doing was staring at him. But there was still something causing Tomohisa to shiver in fear under the gaze of Makoto.

Makoto continued to glare at Tomohisa for a few moments more before turning his gaze away, looking back out of the window with a bored expression on his face.

Once the Level 5's gaze was off of him, Tomohisa let out a sigh of relief, as if a gigantic weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

The moment after Tomohisa let out this sigh, he felt his left foot get crushed by an intense pressure. He managed to stifle the cry of pain and anger that crept up his throat before glaring over at Saten, the person whose foot was on Tomohisa's.

Saten glared at Tomohisa while covertly gesturing at the Level 5 sitting across the table from them.

" _You see now? You practically pissed your pants just having that crazy bastard looking at you, so imagine what will happen when he gets pissed off. Let's get out of here now so we won't die!"_

Tomohisa did his best to regain his composure, dragging his foot out from underneath Saten's.

" _Saten-san… Would you please just calm down for a few moments? I'll agree that Misaka-san is a bit… Unstable, but I'm still certain that we can reason with him."_

Saten again covertly gestured at Makoto, his eyes glaring at Tomohisa with a look that was dripping with pure venom.

" _A bit unstable? If he were any more unstable he'd be falling over all the time! Face it Tomo-chan! Just admit that one of your Level 5 idols is a short, unsociable bastard, and we have no reason to-…!?"_

"You know… I'm usually not one to eavesdrop on other people's conversations… but I can't help but listen in to the very interesting one you two are having."

Both Tomohisa and Saten both stopped whispering to each other instantly and, as one, turned to look across the table, where the face of a maliciously smiling Makoto was greeting them.

"So… I wasn't really paying attention to the first bit, but… Could you please tell me who is a 'short, unsociable bastard?' I feel like I would really like to know."

Accompanying his question was a short spark of bluish white electricity that arched onto the table between the students, causing both Tomohisa and Saten to jump in surprise. Tomohisa dryly swallowed as his mind raced.

 _Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit! This is bad! At this rate we really will die! Come on… I've got to think up a way out of the situation before-…?!_

"You know… It's because of this bullshit that I think you are not only a short, unsociable bastard, but a short, unsociable psychopathic bastard."

Tomohisa felt all the blood drain from his face as he turned to look at Saten, his mouth hanging open in an expression of wordless shock. Makoto also turned to look at Saten, with a vein in his forehead bulging out in his rage.

"Oh… so that's what you think of me huh? I'm just curious, but could you kindly fill me in as to what you are referring to as bullshit?"

Saten laughed directly at Makoto before making a gesture as if he was explaining something basic to a preschooler.

"Isn't it obvious to you shorty? Let me lay it out for you then. The way you are throwing your power around like it was some sort of tool to scare us gives me the idea that you don't care even one tiny bit for the people around you. Really now… you are almost the perfect case study of a psychopathic bastard dwarf."

A second bulging vein had appeared on Makoto's forehead over the course of Saten's explanation, and Makoto's face was now extremely red despite the calm tone of his voice.

"I see… So tell me… Why are you calling me names synonymous with short? Are you perhaps insinuating something?"

Again Saten chuckled in the face of Makoto before repeating his lecturing gesture.

"What? Do you have a problem with that pip squeak? If you ask me I'm just calling it as I see it… Chibi."

There was an audible arc of electricity that made everyone in the restaurant jump in surprise. Saten dove under the table to escape the lance of bluish energy that launched itself for the spot where his head had been a few moments earlier. The lance of energy collided with the seat and left a blackened spot on the originally pristine surface.

Makoto was standing up his hands placed firmly on the table as he glared over at the two students' across from him, small sparks of electricity arching off of him as he raged.

"Listen here… I know I might be a bit short for my age… and I haven't really grown much since last year… but… but…"

Makoto raised a clenched fist up into the air before slamming it back down onto the table with a resounding crash.

"Just so you know I'm definitely going through a growth spurt soon! How the fuck does that give you the reason to insult me about my size!?"

"… Yes, Yes. We all know how 'big' and scary you are, so how about you chill out for a few seconds?"

The next moment, a glass full of iced tea was poured out onto Makoto's head, causing the raging esper to go instantly quiet as fumes of steam literally began to flow off of his head.

With a sigh Shirai Kuroko placed his now empty glass onto the table as he sat down, looking up at the still standing Makoto with an annoyed glare.

"Really now Aneki… I have to pay for that now just because you were getting angry, and I didn't even get to take a sip of it. I mean really now… Don't you have a limit to how many times you go crazy during the day? You just tire me out with your idiocy sometimes…"

Makoto remained in a glowering silence for a few more moments as the tea soaked its way into his clothes as more and more steam began to form around his head. Makoto then turned to look at Kuroko with a look of pure rage in his eyes and a growl in his tone.

"Kuroko!"

Kuroko sighed in the face of Makoto's rage and looked up at him with an entirely apathetic look.

"Aneki… Why don't you sit down for a bit and calm down?"

Following Kuroko's question, there was a clear sign of a large amount of force applied to one of Makoto's body parts, causing him to keel over in pain. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Kuroko turned to look at Tomohisa, who was shivering in some feeling of fear, and Saten, who was peeking up above the table to check if everything was okay. Kuroko looked between the two people in front of him, and grinned at both rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish way.

"Well now… I had really hoped that this meeting would go some semblance of well… but I guess a big part of life us being disappointed. So… Tomohisa… How have you been today? You seemed a little down earlier… Is your day better now?"

Tomohisa looked between Kuroko, who was smiling patiently as if he wasn't aware of the stares he was getting from his side and from other worried looking customers in the restaurant, to Saten, who was slowly pulling himself out from his hiding place from underneath the table, and finally to Makoto, who was slowly trying to regain his composure from when Kuroko attacked him.

After taking in the full scope of his current company, Tomohisa sighed and opened his mouth to respond to Kuroko.

"Well-…?!"

Tomohisa was knocked out of the way by Saten, both figuratively as his friend cut into the conversation, and literally as Tomohisa was shoved out of the way, nearly falling away from the table due to the force of Saten's shoving.

"Sorry to butt into your conversation here… But I must ask. Judgement guy… Aren't you going to do anything about that crazy bastard sitting next to you? Like… I don't know… Bring him to the Anti-Skill agent you were talking to?"

Kuroko looked at Saten with a curious gaze, clearly born from the fact that Kuroko didn't know who it was that was talking to him. After a few seconds of silence Kuroko rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and smiled at Saten.

"Ah… Sorry but… you'll have to forgive me. I didn't really understand the question you were asking… Mister…?"

Saten looked at Kuroko for a moment in an expression of silent confusion, before realizing what the trailing off of the Judgement agent's question meant.

"Oh… Sorry about that. My name is Saten. Ruriko Saten. I'm Tomo-chan's friend and classmate… And I'm going to have to guess that you are the much talked about Shirai Kuroko."

Kuroko nodded in appreciation and gestured towards himself.

"Yes that would be me. As Tomohisa has probably told you I'm his partner in Judgement and I've known him from before we started middle school. Now… As to your original question…"

Kuroko wrapped his arm around Makoto's neck and dragged his friends head close to his suddenly.

"I am sorry to say to you that despite Aneki's… 'explosive' personality, Anti-Skill isn't that concerned about taking him in. The agent from earlier was just taking down my side of what had happened and scheduling a time for Aneki to come in and tell his."

Makoto pulled away roughly from Kuroko, an angry glare directed at his friend.

"Kuroko… Why are you so quick to schedule stuff for me to do without consoling me? Shouldn't I have a say in what I have to do?"

Saten, completely ignoring the fact that Makoto had asked a question, began to question Kuroko in a loud and angry tone of voice.

"What do you mean that Anti-Skill doesn't care about taking him in?! Did you not see how close he came to shocking me, both earlier and just now?! This bastard is a menace to society!"

Makoto turned to look at Saten with a clearly annoyed glare, and opened his mouth with the clear intention of talking back to Saten. Kuroko instantly stepped in between the two by addressing Saten's question first.

"Well… It's not that Anti-Skill isn't worried about Aneki's… temper. It's just that it would be more trouble to bring in a level 5 than it would be worth, even if they cooperated with Anti-Skill. Tokiwodai wouldn't take to kindly to the fact that one of their prized espers to what they would consider pointless charges."

Saten looked as if he had been insulted by what Kuroko had said, throwing his arms up in a gesture of giving up.

"This is the problem with this fucking city! People are so infatuated with high level espers that they are willing to let idiots like this one walk around and keep causing problems. This is so stupid!"

Tomohisa sighed at his friend's outburst and decided not to comment on it at all. Instead he chose to look over at Kuroko, who was still smiling despite the tense feeling in the air.

"So Shirai-san… What are we going to do about the report you wanted us to do? I can still do that if you want, but right now I would think that you don't have the energy to do that."

Kuroko sighed and placed a hand over his face in an attempt to calm down.

"Yeah… We do still need to do that don't we? Well I would like to do that, but unfortunately the rest of my day is going to be dictated by what Aneki wants to do."

Makoto looked over at Kuroko in a clear expression of surprised rage.

"What do you mean I'm dictating what you're going to be doing for the rest of the day?! Are you going to be following me for the rest of the day?"

Kuroko looked at Makoto as if he had said something that was completely unbelievable.

"You have to be joking Aneki. After all the problems you've caused today, do you really think that I'm just going to let you walk around unsupervised?"

Makoto looked at Kuroko with an almost indignant expression on his face.

"What do you mean all the problems I've caused today? All I did was beat up a few lowlifes. I couldn't have done that much damage."

Kuroko shook his head while sighing before looking into Makoto's eyes with a dead serious look.

"Aneki… All those 'lowlifes', besides the one that ran off, aren't going to be sent to the detention center. The agent from earlier said that the length of their hospital stays are going to be longer than any detention center sentence worthy of their crimes."

Makoto opened his mouth with a clear intention to say something, but he stopped short and shut his mouth, a look on his face saying that he was pondering something. He opened his mouth, again with an intention to say something, but again he shut it and began to ponder. A third time he opened his mouth, and a third time he closed it, and after his third ponder, he sighed in a melancholic way.

"Well then… It seems that we are going to be in for it once we get back to the dorms for the night. Maybe we should try and hide out somewhere and hope that the heat dies down before we get back."

Kuroko cast an annoyed look over at Makoto with a sigh.

"What do you mean 'we' are going to be in for it? Sure, they'll be peeved at you for doing it, but at this point they don't expect anything else from you. The person who they are going to be mad at is me because I allowed this to happen."

Makoto looked like he was pondering Kuroko's response before nodding in agreement.

"You are right about that Kuroko, but still, it's best not to deal with that until the latest possible moment. Now then… What in the world are we going to do until curfew?"

Kuroko sighed and looked over at Makoto with a look of informed annoyance.

"Knowing you there are only two possible places for you to choose. One being that manga café over by the third district, and the other being-…"

Kuroko's guesses were cut off when Makoto nodded his head in a mind made up sort of manner.

"Alright then I've decided. I'm going to head over to that arcade in the commercial district."

Kuroko sighed yet again and made a small gesture of mocking celebration.

"Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Well… with that settled I have to ask you Tomohisa, do you really want to come along and try to do this report? I won't lie to you at all and say that we'll be able to get it done, so come along knowing that it most likely will not be happening."

Tomohisa sighed and nodded towards his partner in a depressed sort of gesture.

"I'm guessing that equates to a panicked rush to finish this thing later, but I'll still come along in the hope that we can do it."

Kuroko nodded at Tomohisa in a somewhat appreciative way, before looking over at Saten, who was glowering over at an unaware Makoto.

"What about you Ruriko-san? Would you care to come along as well?"

Saten continued to shift his annoyed glare between the unaware Makoto and smiling Kuroko, before sighing and rubbing the back of his head.

"No… I don't think I would like to come along with you at all. You see… I have a CD that I have to pick up from a shop over in the commercial district, so-…"

Kuroko tilted his head in confusion at Saten's explanation.

"Well… If you are going over the commercial district anyway, why don't you come with us? If it's the music shop I'm thinking about, then it's only a few doors down from arcade we are going to."

Saten cast an annoyed glare to the still unaware Makoto, before opening his mouth with the clear intention of again turning down Kuroko's request. Before he could speak, however, Tomohisa nudged him in the side.

"Come on now Saten-san. It can't really be so hard for you to just walk with us for a few minutes over to the commercial district? Are you really that anti-social?"

Saten glared at Tomohisa for a few moments before sighing and raising both of his hands up in a gesture of complete surrender.

"Fine, Fine. I'll come along. If someone has to keep you from getting killed by these crazy people, might as well be me."

Tomohisa looked at Saten in an angry way, but Makoto chimed in before the two could even start fighting.

"So… Are we done now, or are we going to just sit around and do nothing all day?"

Saten turned his angry glare from Tomohisa directly towards Makoto as an annoyed smile crossed his face.

"Huh? Do you have a problem with me taking my time Chibi? I guess your stature isn't the only thing that is short."

A vein began to bulge on Makoto's forehead, and the level 5 opened his mouth to respond. Kuroko nudged Makoto before the level 5 could speak, gesturing outside.

"Come on now Aneki. You were just so impatient to get out of here, and now you're planning on delaying us even more? Please try and have a tiny bit of self-control."

Makoto continued his annoyed glare towards Saten, which his target returned with an equal amount of annoyance. After a few moments of this, Makoto clicked his tongue and began to move towards leaving.

After settling the situation with the restaurant about the damages done by Makoto, the group walked out of the restaurant and started heading towards the commercial district.

As the group walked down the street, Tomohisa could not help but notice the increase in the number of delinquents in the area. They were mostly walking around in disconnected groups of two to three people, and they clearly didn't have any apparent intention to cause trouble, but the sight of them made Tomohisa uneasy all the same.

Saten also seemed to notice the large number of delinquents, because he sighed in a tired manner before looking over at Tomohisa.

"Really now… you would think that in a world where the internet is available, the word would get out pretty fast that some crazy tiny esper was beating up people."

Makoto glared angrily over at Saten, but didn't say anything due to a glare from Kuroko. Kuroko then sighed and gestured to some of the delinquents roaming the streets.

"Well Ruriko-san… You do have to remember that one of the most common things in the world is stupidity. Heck maybe some of these poor fools are here because they want to get revenge for the ones Aneki beat up earlier."

Makoto sighed in response to what Kuroko said, though he did not say anything. Kuroko in the meantime, clicked his tongue and turned to look at Makoto.

"Speaking of stupidity… Aneki. What exactly are we going to do at the arcade? I have an idea already, but I would like for you to say that you are going to try and win one of those idiotic things to add to your collection."

Makoto again glared over at Kuroko, a grimace plastered on his face as he gazed daggers at his friend.

"Why in the world did you connect stupidity with me? Anyway what does it matter what I'm going to the arcade for? You agreed to it, so it's kind of late to be voicing your problems with it."

Kuroko sighed and shook his head, looking over at Makoto with a pitying gaze.

"Really now Aneki. You must learn to give up this weird obsession of yours. Not only does it cause me to worry about you every time you indulge in it, but it also makes you extremely child-…?"

Kuroko was cut off by the sound of arching electricity, causing him to look over at a red faced Makoto. The level 5 began to growl over at Kuroko in a low rumbling tone, as the electricity began to spark more and more off of his head.

"Kuroko!"

As Makoto's and Kuroko's conversation collapsed into a mere argument between the two, both Saten and Tomohisa dropped behind the two friends to what she hoped to be a safe distance. Saten leaned in to whisper in Tomohisa's ear, the boy keeping a wary eye on the two espers in front of them.

" _Oi… Tomo-chan. Don't you think now would be a good time to get out of here. You know… while their distracted?"_

Tomohisa sighed as he looked over at his friend with an annoyed glare.

" _Are we seriously starting with this again Saten-san? Could you at least try and deal with this in a normal way like a decent human being?"_

Saten glared at Tomohisa with a look of shocked rage.

" _What do you mean 'deal with it in a normal way'? I'm sorry, but in case you haven't noticed, this isn't the sort of situation that a normal person should be in! If I were to deal with this in a normal way I would run!"_

Tomohisa sighed and gestured at Saten in a way that said that Tomohisa cared little for his argument.

" _Listen Saten-san. As much as you are my friend, I must tell you that-…?"_

Tomohisa stopped in his tracks and turned his back to the group, his eyes scanning the scenery that they had just walked through.

The group was at the very edge of the commercial district, so all around them were various small shops and restaurants. The people walking the streets with them were going in and out of all the shops on the street, except for…

"Hey Tomohisa! What's up with you?"

Tomohisa turned around to see Kuroko looking back at him, his argument with Makoto on hold due to the fact that Kuroko was not looking directly at Makoto. Makoto was further on, looking back at Kuroko with an annoyed glare. Saten was also looking at Tomohisa with a concerned look, looking like he had been about to say something to Tomohisa in Kuroko's place.

Tomohisa reached up and begun to rub the back of his head in embarrassment, before gesturing towards the object that held his attention.

"Well… It's just a bit of an itching feeling I'm getting… but…"

Tomohisa looked back at the object that held his attention, a bank that had its shutters pulled down signaling that it was closed. Tomohisa sighed yet again, turning back to look at the group that was behind him.

"Don't you think it's a bit strange that a bank-…!?"

Before Tomohisa could finish speaking, the shutters of the bank blew off in an explosion of fire and steel, sending a resounding shockwave through the building and the surrounding area.


	3. A Certain Meeting of Friends - Part 2

_**This work is based (mostly) on the work of Kazuma Kamachi and other writers. I claim no ownership over the characters or plot points used in this work, just the scenarios they are written in. Please Read, Review, and enjoy.**_

* * *

"…ten-san… Sa…san…"

Saten suddenly squirmed out of unconsciousness and into a state of semi-consciousness as he heard a voice that was obviously calling out his name accompanied with hands shaking him. In the darkness of his semi-consciousness state, Saten realized that the person who was calling out to him, and most likely shaking him, was Tomohisa. The second that Saten realized this, the panic that he had felt from being woken up in such a way vanished.

 _... Ah… It's just Tomo-chan isn't it… I have probably fallen asleep in class again… Ah well… Might as well sleep some more so that I don't fall asleep in the next class._

Saten waved off Tomohisa's hands from his body, and maneuvered his body into a much more comfortable position so to drift off back into sleep. However, almost instantly Tomohisa's voice called out to him again, louder this time, and the hands renewed their shaking of Saten's body.

"Saten-san… Saten-san…"

 _Come on Tomo-chan… Can't you let me sleep for a little while longer? I don't get a lot of sleep as it is, so what the problem with getting a bit of sleep when I can?_

Saten shook off Tomohisa's grasp on his body and rolled over to try once again to go back to sleep. However Tomohisa's hands returned to Saten's body to continue shaking him, this time with a large amount of force. Tomohisa's voice was practically yelling at him now, causing Saten's head to hurt like he had a migraine.

"Saten-san! Saten-san!"

Saten slowly began to open his eyes with a grimace on his face, and he rolled over to look at Tomohisa.

"Tomo-chan… Why are you doing this to me? Don't you know how-…?"

The second that Saten's eyes got used to the sunlight that was shining down on him, he realized that he was lying on the hard concrete ground, a place that was unideal to sleep. Saten squinted his eyes in confusion.

"How… How in the world did I get down here? What… What was I doing that got me-…!?"

At that moment, all of what had happened before Saten had fallen into unconsciousness came rushing back to him. He instantly rocketed up from his lying position and into a sitting position, doing it so fast that his head began to pound in pain. Saten quickly held both sides of his head in a feeble attempt to control the pain in his head, and as he did so he found that one side of his head was wet with some liquid.

Pulling the wet hand away from his head, Saten found that it was covered with the red sticky substance known as blood.

Saten felt a sudden queasiness in his stomach as more blood began to trickle down the side of his face, dripping down onto the concrete.

"Wha-… What in the world happened when I was out? Did some sort of crazy party happen when I wasn't looking?"

Saten heard a loud and exasperated sigh from his side, and when he turned to look at who it was that was doing it, he saw that it was Tomohisa.

Tomohisa looked cut up, with scratches all along his arm and on his face. Blood had yet to start flowing from Tomohisa's injuries like Saten's, but there was a distinct redness to his wounds that made sure to show that blood had been drawn.

Tomohisa glared at Saten with an annoyed glare before punching his friend in the shoulder.

"For fuck's sake Saten-san! You gave everyone a heart attack because of how much of a fucking idiot you are! I mean really… How in the world do you get so scared that you trip over nothing, fall over and hit your own head on a railing, and knock yourself out!?"

Saten felt his face slowly begin to turn a very dark shade of crimson as he recalled everything that happened when the explosion had gone off. He had indeed gotten scared from the explosion, he had indeed tripped over absolutely nothing, and the last thing he remembered before waking up was the sight of a metal railing rushing up towards him.

Saten remembered all of that happening to the letter as Tomohisa had recited it, yet Saten could only feel anger towards Tomohisa for pointing everything out.

"Well sorry for panicking at an explosion going off, but what in the world would a normal person do when a bomb goes off right next to you!? I should be happy that the worst thing that happened was that I got knocked out, instead of having a random piece of metal sticking out of me, or worse, be dead."

Saten heard another sigh from the side opposite Tomohisa and when he turned to look to see who it was, Saten saw that it was Kuroko that was leaning up against a tree, in a similar sort of state as both Saten and Tomohisa. A blood trickle was running down the center of his face, and any uncovered flesh had a scratch across it.

Kuroko smiled over at Saten and nodded his head in an acknowledging manner.

"You can thank me for the fact that you aren't in a worse position by the way. If I hadn't acted when I did… There might not have been enough of you and Tomohisa left to even make one body."

Kuroko gestured to a space that was directly across from the group, and Saten, after a bit of a struggle to stand up due to the amount of blood he had lost, looked at what Kuroko was gesturing at.

The group was across the street from where they had been, and where they had been now looked like what one would see on the news in a warzone.

The metal shutters which had been down in front of the bank's front door had been blown open from an internal explosion. The opening was now framed on either side by large blazes of fire and twisted, distorted steel components from the shutter. Glass shards which were originally part of the windows of the bank lay scattered around the sidewalk, and from the inside of the bank large black plumes of smoke were billowing out, obscuring any view of the interior.

Saten shivered in fear at the sight that was laid out before him, and felt a slight stirring in his stomach at the idea that he could have been caught up in that if it hadn't been for Kuroko. Luckily there had no one else who had been in a similar position as Saten and Tomohisa, so there were no injuries aside from the three boys, but as the three looked on they saw that bystanders were already gathering around the blown open bank front.

As he looked over at the bank, and saw all the bystanders slowly gathering, Kuroko let out a sigh of depression.

"Why does my day seem to get worse and worse by the minute? First Aneki runs off on one of his bullshit tantrums, then he attacks one of my friends for no good reason, and now this… Tomohisa, did I do something recently to deserve this?"

Saten had nervously grinned at Kuroko throughout his rant, but as soon as the Judgement agent was done, a flash of panic raced through Saten's gut.

"Speaking of the crazy dwarf… Where in the world is he? Did he run off at the first sign of danger like a normal person would, or did he…?"

"Oh you don't have to worry about me. Kuroko had the decency to pick me up and teleport me out of danger like he did with you. But I do have a… slight problem with where he put me."

Saten looked towards the source of this voice, and found that the source was one rather annoyed looking Makoto, who was hanging upside down from the tree Kuroko was leaning against via a cloth strap which was tied around his ankles. Makoto was hanging there, arms crossed and glaring down at Kuroko with a fearsome gaze.

"Kuroko… Why did you decide to hang me from a tree? Did I do something to offend you recently?"

Kuroko sighed and waved away Makoto's concerns as he stopped leaning against the tree. The Judgement agent stretched out in preparation for getting to work.

"Well Aneki… Why don't you just hang out there and think about that question while I sort out this mess? I probably won't have the opportunity to stop you if you decide to go out of control again, so it would be better if you just stay out of the way… Oh look. There are the latest pains in my neck right now."

At that moment, almost on Kuroko's que, another group of people emerged from the smoke covered interior of the bank, the clear perpetrators of the current situation.

The man at the head of the new group, the apparent leader of them, was a man dressed in a complete outfit of leather, with a black leather jacket with metal spikes on the shoulders, black leather pants, and a pair of black leather boots. The leader had a red patterned bandana over the lower half of his face, and a giant duffel bag hung over his shoulder which was obviously filled with cash from the bank.

On either side of the leader were two similarly dressed goons, both of them carrying a duffel bag each and with cocky grins across their faces. The fourth member of the group was hanging back behind the other three, and he was dressed up in a long beige colored trench coat, and they were looking around with a definite twitch of worry.

The leader scanned the area quickly, as if he was looking for any indication of danger towards them, and finding none, the leader smirked. The leader then gave a slight gesture towards his goons, and as one the four criminals began to run off down the street without anyone stopping them.

Kuroko watched the group of criminals run off with a sad smile on his face and sighed out in a disappointed way. Reaching into his pocket the Judgement agent pulled out a pair of black leather gloves and the green armband with a shield that represented Judgement. Kuroko gestured towards Tomohisa and pointed towards the people who were looking at the black smoke spewing bank or the criminals who were running off.

"Tomohisa… Please try to do some crowd control with these people so that they don't get involved with this stupidity? Just try to keep them out of the way. Also call Anti-skill so that they can get here sooner rather than later. Taking the damage into consideration, I would say that we would be dealing with a Level 3 fire esper at the very least. I would like some backup if I can get it."

Tomohisa nodded and also pulled out and affixed his Judgement armband onto his sleeve. He then pulled out his phone and dialed the number for Anti-Skill, while at the same time starting to direct people away from the entrance of the bank.

Kuroko sighed again and turned to look over at Saten, who was still absolutely at a loss of words due to the speed things were happening at.

"Ruriko-san… Sorry to spring this on you, but… could you please watch over Aneki for me while this is happening? Even in his current condition I am still hesitant to leave him unsupervised."

"… Kuroko one of these days I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to be standing over you one morning with you tied to your bed and I'm going to break your fucking legs!"

Kuroko looked up at Makoto, who was raging in his restraints, and sighed.

"Really now Aneki… Now you are just saying things that sound kinky to me. Are you trying to rev my engines a bit before I have to work?"

Makoto facepalmed and continued to hang from the tree in silence with a look of annoyance on his face. Kuroko sighed again and gestured towards the hanging Level 5 while he addressed Saten.

"So then Ruriko-san… Again could you look after mister 'raging bag of puberty' here? This will probably be… well… A while at least, but…"

Kuroko's plea droned off as he realized that he had nothing else to add to it, while Saten was looking up at the still scowling Makoto. After a few moments of this, Saten sighed and nodded at Kuroko while gesturing towards Makoto.

"I guess I'll do it… well I'll-…!?"

Kuroko grabbed the hand that Saten was using to gesture with and shook it in an appreciative manner.

"Great Ruriko-san! I definitely owe you one!"

At that moment Kuroko released Saten's hand, and disappeared with a little pop, indicating that the esper had teleported away.

* * *

As Kuroko exited the eleventh dimension with another small pop and was back onto the street, he sighed as he distinctly felt his stomach rumble in response to him teleporting.

 _Really now? I was certain to take all of my regulators this morning, yet I'm still getting stomach problems… Should I talk with Sensei about getting new pills or…?_

"Oi! Kid! Get the fuck out of the way now!"

Kuroko turned to look at the source of the voice with a curious look on his face, and instantly saw the source was the group of criminals running towards him. Kuroko couldn't help but smile at the fact that he had landed his teleport almost perfectly to where he had wanted, and he grabbed ahold of the green armband to show the criminals.

"Judgement desu yo! Please stop where you are and submit to-…!?"

Kuroko did not even get to finish giving out his warning as the leader of the criminals gestured to both of his goons, and the two goons ran ahead of their leader with grins on their faces. The faster of the two goons threw a punch towards Kuroko once they got close enough, while the lagging goon aimed a kick at the Judgement agent's shins.

"Sorry Mister Judgement but…!"

"We've got to get by right now!"

Kuroko looked between the two goons, sighed and instantly completed the calculations to reenter the eleventh dimension, jumping to a point just above the two instantly confused goons. As Kuroko did a bit of midair adjustment to line up his attack, he could not help but smile when both the goons turned to look at their boss in a spooked manner.

"Like I said…"

One of the goons must have heard what Kuroko had said, because they looked up towards the Judgement agent's rapidly approaching foot. There was a distinct crunch as Kuroko's foot sunk into the goons face, and when Kuroko jumped off the goon's face like it was a spring board, there was a shoe print on their face.

The goon with the shoe print on their face toppled backwards and slammed face up on to the pavement while Kuroko landed on his feet with a smile on his face. The second goon, now aware of Kuroko's presence, threw a punch at the judgement agent with a furious grimace on his face.

"Why you little…!?"

The second goon followed through with his swing at Kuroko, only to have their arm fly through open air as the Judgement agent again teleported away from harm's way. Kuroko grinned as he continued his commands to the criminals.

"I am a member of Judgement, so please stop where you are and…"

Kuroko emerged from the eleventh dimension right behind the other goon and took the opportunity presented by the panicking man to punch him in the side of the face with a gloved hand. The second goon was sent flying to the ground, leaving Kuroko as the only person standing. He smiled as he looked down at the dazed goons with a smile.

"Submit yourself to detainment while we sort out you getting arrested by Anti-Skill."

The leader of the criminals clenched his fist in a rage before he gestured to the third goon, the one in the trench coat. The trench coat wearing goon nodded his head nervously before they turned around on the spot and ran off in the opposite direction of Kuroko. The leader of the criminals sighed before he began flexing his hands as he smiled at Kuroko from behind his bandana.

"Really now… Has Judgement decided to take a more aggressive approach towards your guy's training? Here I had thought you Judgement guys just served as glorified hall monitors or crossing guards, not martial artists."

Kuroko chuckled for a bit before shrugging back at the criminal leader.

"Well… Of all people you should know that checking for hall passes and making sure kids cross the street safely is a very dangerous thing to do now a days. Judgement has decided to beef up their forces in response to tackling these very dangerous tasks."

The leader of the criminals chuckled back at Kuroko and lifted his hand up so his empty palm was level with his face.

"Ahh… Really now? I must admit you Judgement guys must have it hard. I'm sorry to say this but…"

Suddenly there was a spark of fire in the palm of the criminal leader's hand, and then it began to grow until there was a fireball hanging in the air just above the palm of their hand. The criminal leader smiled at Kuroko as he winded up what was clearly a toss towards the Judgement agent.

"I'm going to have to make your day a fair bit worse!"

The criminal boss threw the fireball that was in his hand directly towards Kuroko, and the fireball flew through the air on an almost perfect trajectory for Kuroko's head.

Kuroko sighed as he watched the fireball flying towards him, before quickly doing the calculation to teleport half a meter to the side. The fireball soared through the air where Kuroko's head had inhabited a second before, eventually colliding in an explosion of sparks.

Kuroko looked at the explosion of sparks with a somewhat bored expression before he sighed and looked back at the criminal boss.

"I have to ask you something… How in the world is that supposed to be-…!?"

Kuroko was cut off as he teleported to another spot to avoid another fireball, and then quickly again to dodge yet another fireball. This pattern continued and intensified for a few more seconds until the criminal boss snapped and started yelling at Kuroko.

"Stop flashing around you showboating bastard! Stand still and accept your fate like a man!"

Kuroko did not pay any attention to the criminal boss's demands at all as he was dodging all of the fireballs flying at him. What he did do was meditate on the nagging feeling in the back of his head.

… _This guy… What in the world is wrong with this scene? I he's the only person who has displayed the esper power's necessary to blow open the front of the bank… but this power level is a bit-…!?_

Kuroko quickly moved his head to the side in order to dodge a fireball that got dangerously close to him before he could calculate the dimensions needed to teleport. As he felt the heat of the fire go past his face and a bit of his hair get singed off, a switch flipped in Kuroko's head so that he was entirely focused on what he had to do.

… _Well then… I guess it's time for me to get a tad bit more serious about this._

The criminal boss did not seem to notice the change that came over Kuroko, as he smiled over at the Judgement and made a gesture of victory while he prepared another fireball.

"Ha! Take that you bastard! The next one is going to go right through your-…!?"

The criminal boss was cut off when Kuroko's foot sunk into their stomach. The teleporter had jumped directly in front of the criminal boss, and now used the respite he had gained from kicking the criminal boss to sigh and glare at them.

"Now then… Please…"

Kuroko followed up his kick with a punch to the criminal boss in the stomach, and when the criminal boss wound up to throw a retaliatory fireball at him, he dodged to the side. Kuroko continued to glare at the criminal boss as he readied his fist to punch again.

"Calm…!"

Kuroko swung and followed through with his punch the criminal boss on the side of their face, knocking the criminals head sharply to the side. Kuroko dodged yet another fireball thrown in retaliation and prepped his fist for one final punch.

"Down…!"

Kuroko swung his fist up in a vicious uppercut that landed squarely on the criminal boss's chin. The criminal boss flew backwards from the force of the punch and landed face up on the pavement with a loud thud. Kuroko shook his head with a sigh and rubbed his now sore hand.

"… And wait for Anti-Skill to come get you."

* * *

"… Wow… That was… amazing… To say the very least about it…"

Saten could not help but say this with wide eyed wonder after witnessing the spectacle of Kuroko's fight with the criminals. The whole engagement had taken up less than a minute, and Kuroko didn't even seem distressed from all of the fireballs that had been tossed at him during it. He instead calmly began to look at the three criminals on the ground with an expression of distaste before looking over at Tomohisa.

"Tomohisa! Have you gotten ahold of Anti-Skill yet?! I don't know how long these guys are going to stay down for!"

Tomohisa lowered his phone from his ear a replied back to Kuroko without even batting an eyelash at the sight that the criminals had already been defeated.

"Their already on their way Kuroko, but it seems that they're going to be a bit late due to the closest team having respond to another incident."

Kuroko sighed and began to stretch out in what could be a considered an attempt to relax. He looked down at the dazed criminals and shrugged.

"Well I guess I should do all I can to make you feel comfortable since you are going to be here for a while. Wouldn't want anyone to say that Judgement treats their detainees unfairly."

With that Kuroko produced three pairs of handcuffs from his pockets and prepared to properly detain his detainees.

Saten began to shake his head as he continued to stare at Kuroko in admiration, even looking over at Tomohisa with a new sense of understanding as the second Judgement continued to direct people to stand away from the scene.

"Really now… Judgement people like Tomo-chan and Kurokochi really have it hard. I've heard all about the stuff that they have to do but… seeing it up close really makes it clear to you."

"… So your one of those kinds of people that gives people nicknames once they earn your respect, huh?"

As soon as he had heard their voice, Saten was going to respond to Makoto's question with a remark on how his nicknames for him weren't born out of respect, but then he heard the sound of arching electricity which caused Saten to look up in surprise.

Saten was just in time to see the falling form of the third Academy City level 5 fall to the ground, the binding on his legs burning up into ash as he fell. Makoto laid on the ground for a few moments with a pained expression on his face before standing up and dusting himself off. The level 5 then looked over at Kuroko, who was too busy putting handcuffs on the two goons to notice the fact that Makoto had gotten free. Seeing this, the Level 5 grinned in what could only be described as a malicious way.

"Well now… Since Kuroko is so focused on his job… I might as well get out of here while I have the chance!"

Makoto started to move in an attempt to run away from the scene and escape, but he only got two steps far before Saten sprung out in front of him, arms spread out in a clear attempt to contain him.

"Hold on now there chibi. As much as I know you want to go out and ruin some person's day, I'm going to have to have you stay here for now. Without Kurokochi here I don't trust you to be by yourself."

Makoto clicked his tongue and fixed Saten with a glare that was filled with pure rage. If they hadn't been surrounded by people, Saten had the feeling that he would have been shocked by a burst of electricity.

"Listen here you stupid bastard. Get out of my way now or we are going to have problems. Particularly the problem of how crispy you are going to be when I'm done with you!"

Saten felt a bead of cold sweat roll down his neck, but he returned the Level 5's glare with just as much ferocity as was directed at him.

"Now, Now dwarf. No need to be so angry about having to wait for your babysitter. Just let me keep you company for a-…!?"

"You… You stinking bastard!"

Saten was cut off when suddenly the criminal boss sprung back up while Kuroko was struggling to put hand cuffs on him. Kuroko teleported backwards to get clear of the criminal boss, an annoyed look on his face as he glared at them.

"Really now… Could you please just sit down while Anti-Skill gets here? You should already know how impossible it is to-…!?"

The criminal boss, while running on pure rage and adrenaline, began to summon his fireballs yet again. Only this time the fireballs, which previously would have fit in the palm of the criminal boss's hand, were almost three times that size. Kuroko could only blankly stare at the now giant fireballs before sighing.

"Well… I guess that proves that you were the one who blew open the front of the bank… That should help Anti-Skill put you away for a bit."

The criminal boss only responded to Kuroko with a low animal like growl before throwing the giant fireballs with a fury born of his current condition. Kuroko instantly dodged the fireball, and watched as it the pavement in a huge explosion of fire and sparks. Once the flames cleared away somewhat, everyone could see that the concrete pavement had been melted somewhat by the fireball.

Kuroko looked at the melted pavement and sighed before stretching out again, his face a clear expression of the focus he had.

"Well then… guess I'll have to work that little bit more, huh?"

Kuroko and the criminal boss then launched back into their fight, but Saten did not get a chance to observe the fight for more than a few seconds due to the fact that Makoto used that opportunity to slip away from Saten. Saten quickly began to chase after him, though he instantly realized that it would be hard to catch him.

Makoto ran in the direction opposite of Kuroko, and dove into one of the many alleyways that made up Academy City. Saten followed behind the Level 5 rapidly, and finally caught up to Makoto once the two boys reached an intersection in the alleyways. Saten grabbed ahold of Makoto's arm by the wrist to stop him from going any further.

"Now come on chibi! Could you please just calm down for a few seconds and just stand somewhere so you don't worry someone's day!? How much do you want to-…!?"

Saten instantly let go of the Level 5's arm when he heard the sound of arching electricity and felt all of the feeling below his elbow disappear. Makoto grimaced at Saten and rudely gestured at the Level 0 as electricity arched off of him like some sort of tesla coil.

"Listen here you annoying bastard! Leave me alone right now, or the next time you get in my way I'm going to fry you like a bloody potato!"

Saten slowly felt the felling return to his arm before he glared at the Level 5 with a rage that could only have been born from a Level 0.

"… This is why I can't stand all of you goddamned high level espers! You're all so stuck up and abuse your powers so quickly… I just sickens me to-…!?"

At that moment a person ran in between Saten and Makoto, causing the two boys too look at them rather than continue with the fight that was clearly going to break out between them. It was when Saten focused on the person now running away from him that the Level 0 recognized them.

The person running down the alleyway was the fourth member of the criminal group that was currently being detained by Kuroko, the goon who had been wearing the long trench coat. The expression on the goons face was that of a pure panic, and it was completely clear that they had not even noticed Saten or Makoto in their flight of terror. For some reason the goons was running slower than what one would expect, as if they were carrying a huge weight as they ran.

Saten continued to track the goon as he ran to the mouth of the alleyway before he gestured towards them, looking at Makoto, who had an annoyed expression on his face as he watched the criminal run away.

"Hey… Shouldn't we report him to Kurokochi so he knows that he missed one? I don't think it would be good to have him running around would it?"

Makoto glared over at Saten, clearly still angry about the confrontation they were going to have. However after a moment, Makoto smiled over at Saten and gestured for him to continue.

"Oh please go right ahead. That an absolutely wonderful idea. You can go and tell Kuroko about that guy, and I'll get out of yours and everyone else's way to go and do something more productive."

Saten grimaced at Makoto and sighed while he continued to track the trench coated goon as they ran away.

"Is your IQ as small as your fucking stature? You know full well that I'm not letting you go on your merry destructive-…!?"

Saten stopped talking at that moment when he realized why it was that the trench coated goon was running so strangely.

One of the flaps on the goon's trench coat flapped open to reveal that the goon was carrying a small child underneath it. The child was maybe four or five, and they had tears born from fear in his eyes as he was clearly being kidnapped.

As the goon rounded the corner to the alleyway and disappeared from view with the child, Saten's body began to move almost instinctively after them. Almost instantly Saten found himself stopped when someone grabbed his arm by the wrist.

"What in the world do you think you are doing you idiot? Don't you think you should go report that to Kuroko instead of running off and making things worse?"

Saten whirled around to face Makoto, the person holding onto his wrist, and began to yell at him in a fury.

"What do you mean go tell Kuroko!? By the time we go and tell him that guy will probably get away with the kid! We need to rescue him before that happens!"

Makoto sighed and gestured in the direction where the criminal had run away with a serious look on his face as he did so.

"Well what in the world do you plan to do when you catch up to him? What happens if that guy happens to be an esper, or he happens to have a weapon of some sort? I doubt you have any training to deal with that sort of thing… So again, what the hell are you going to do?"

Saten glared back at Makoto as the Level 0 continued to gesture towards where the criminal had run away to.

"Why are you acting like this has nothing to do with you!? You're a Level 5 aren't you!? Why don't you use those powers of yours to beat the crap out of the guy so we can rescue the kid!? Surely that has to be a more constructive use of your powers than just attacking random people!"

Makoto sighed and shook his head, looking at Saten with an overly annoyed look on his face.

"I'm acting like this is none of my business because this is none of my business. When I zap 'random' people, I usually do it because I have a good reason to do it, not because it is what someone else wants me to do. If you want to have me zap that guy… then you're going to have to make it worth my while."

Saten glared at Makoto, who was returning the glare from the Level 0 with one of his own.

"So let me get this straight… You won't do anything to help that kid unless I make it 'worth your while'? Is that what you are saying to me right now?"

Makoto nodded towards Saten, sighing as he did so.

"Of course that is what I'm telling you. Why in the world would you expect me to do-…!?"

Makoto was cut off when Saten's fist slammed into the center of his face. The Level 5 was sent sprawling to the ground as the Level 0 looked down on them with an expression of pure rage.

"Fine then… If the person best suited to saving the kid won't do it, then I guess I'll do it myself! I don't care what you do anymore! You can go fuck off for all I care!"

With that Saten turned away from the Level 5 who was sprawled on the ground and instantly took off after the trench coated goon with the child. He moved mostly off of fury and anger, so he did not even begin to think about what his plan for saving the kid was until he was outside of the alleyway.

The criminal with the kid had not gone far, being only a few meters away from the exit of the alleyway when Saten came out of it. The goon was busy with trying to break open a car door that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings or the kid at all, keeping only a single hand on the collar of the kid so they would not run away.

Saten watched from afar, not wanting to get to close and spooking the criminal. He waited his brain coming up with a very simple plan for him to do.

… _I've just got to grab the kid, run, and not worry about anything else. If I can just get them away…!_

At that moment the trench coated goon let go of the kid, obviously to finish up whatever thing he was doing to open up the car and Saten used that moment to its fullest potential.

Saten broke out in a full run, reaching out and grabbing the kid before the trench coated goon could even turn to see the middle schooler running towards them. Once his target was safely in his hands, Saten began to sprint as hard as he could, looking for a safe place to escape from the goon.

The child in Saten's hands looked up at him with a fearful expression on, point back at the goon with an intensity that was strange for one of his age.

"M-mister! That bad guy! He-… He…!"

Saten smiled back at the child and waved his hand back and forth in an attempt to make the kids worries disappear.

"Don't worry about it little guy. Once we get far enough away, that guy won't be any-…!?"

Before Saten could finish speaking, from behind him there was a sound of a single gunshot. Directly to his side a window on a car shattered, and the combination of that and the gunshot caused the middle schooler to tumble to the ground. He had the good sense to fall so that he would take the most of the damage from the fall, rather than the kid.

As Saten looked back at the criminal, he saw that the person who had shot was the same trench coated goon. The goon was holding his pistol with quivering hands, and his face was twisted in an expression that was half fear and half power induced confidence. The goon smiled at Saten before putting the middle schooler in their sights.

"Listen here… you little punk. That kid… is our group's backup plan for if any of us got caught. You know… ransom and that sort of thing. So… could you hand him over to me?"

The child that was in Saten's arms instantly began to cry, holding on to Saten for dear life because of the fear the goon had instilled in him.

"Mi-Mister! Don't give me back to the scary guy! I don't want to be kidnapped!"

Saten clicked his tongue and glared back up at the goon, who was still smiling down at Saten with an expression that was part terrified and part cocky.

"You god damn bastard! Why can't you just let us go since you've already abandoned you friends!? I won't tell the Judgement guy that you are here, so-…!?"

The goon's trigger finger began to twitch, a small movement that caused Saten to instantly shut up. The goon chuckled at this and put on an expression that was now full of his smugness.

"Well… I guess I'm not completely heartless. So I'll give you a choice. Either you give me the kid, or you are going to have to take-…!?"

"Spark of Justice!"

From behind the goon, there was the clear sound of arching electricity and a bolt of bluish white electricity hit the goon directly in the head. The goon's eyes rolled back into his head and their body flopped down onto the floor like a puppet with all its strings cut.

Saten looked at the goon who was now face down on the floor for a good few seconds before looking up to look for the person he knew was going to be there. They were there, though they were completely different to what Saten had expected.

Misaka Makto, the Level 5 esper who had said the saving the child from being kidnapped, was now standing there, posing like some cheesy actor in a Saturday morning special, with what appeared to be half of a cheap plastic mask hung over the top part of his face.

The Level 5 laughed heartily and switched poses so that he was pointing at Saten and the child who had almost been kidnapped.

"Well Good citizen! You were quite lucky that I was passing by! I hope that criminal scum didn't do anything to hurt you!"

Saten glared at the Level 5 who was now acting like a gigantic idiot with a look that could only be described as annoyed confusion. Makoto instantly began to sweat under the scrutiny of Saten, and began to twitch the moment that Saten opened his mouth to obviously question the Level 5.

"Chibi-san… What in the world are you-…!?"

"A Guardian Ranger!"

Saten was cut off when the kid, who had been bawling his eyes out seconds earlier, jumped out of Saten's hand and ran up to examine Makoto, who instantly beamed up when his poor excuse of a cosplay got noticed.

"That's right young citizen! I am one of the guardians of Justice, the mighty-…!?"

"Aneki…"

Makoto and Saten both jumped in surprise when they realized the Kuroko, who had several pretty obvious burn marks on his clothes from his battle with the fire wielding esper. The Judgement agent was blankly staring at Makoto with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Makoto instantly began to panic under the stares of Kuroko, waving his hands around in a useless attempt to explain with gestures.

"Kuroko! This is… It's not what it looks like! I… Uhm…"

Kuroko sighed and shook his head, slowly raising his fist that was clearly clenched in anger.

"You god damn…"

Kuroko punched Makoto directly in the stomach, causing the Level 5 to keel over in front of the Judgement agent. Kuroko then followed this up by grabbing ahold of the sides and began applying a great deal of pressure on Makoto's unfortunate head.

"Eighth Grade Syndrome suffering bastard!"

All that escaped from Makoto's mouth at that time was a wordless groan of pain, while at Kuroko's side the kid that Saten and Makoto had saved was shaking Kuroko's arm, trying to keep the Judgement agent from hurting Makoto.

"Don't hurt them mister Judgement guy! He saved me and mister over there from the real bad guy!"

Kuroko of course did not listen to the child and continued to apply pressure mercilessly to Makoto's head. Saten, in the meanwhile, could only sigh and look up to the sky with a confused look on his face.

 _Really now… What a strange day I have been having today…_


	4. A Certain Normal Day - Part 1

_**This work is based (mostly) on the work of the original authors and I claim no ownership of plot points or characters from the original work, just any new scenarios written around them. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

* * *

"... Tomo-chan… Not to be dismissive of Ku- … Shirai-san's invitation, but… are you entirely certain that we should be going to the High District? I'm not saying that I am a hundred percent against the idea of going… but it's just that I'm a bit hesitant when I remember what happened last week."

Even as Saten let his opinion be known to his friend, he instantly knew that Tomohisa didn't care about what he was saying. Saten's friend was looking out of the rain streaked window of the bus, clearly bored of the message that Saten had been drilling into his head for the last week using different variations.

 _Really now… The whole bank incident happened last week, and the way Tomo-chan act you would think it never happened. I mean it was just two days ago that you had to submit the report for the thing, and I still have visible injuries from it. Don't you have a little apprehension about dealing with these people Tomo-chan?_

Saten did not ask Tomohisa the question that was running through his head, but instead looked at his friend and began to poke the back of their head in an effort to get their attention.

"Hey Tomo-chan… Am I really so boring that the sight of water falling from the sky is more interesting than me? For some reason, and I can't figure out why, but that really pisses me off."

Saten could see and anger mark appear on Tomohisa's forehead as they turned to look at Saten, a scowl clear on their face as they looked at Saten.

"Saten-san… Are you really going to continue to whine about this? I told you earlier that you didn't have to come today, seeing as how much grumbling you've been doing for the past week, but you decided to come. You getting annoyed at me about this is just plain idiotic at this point."

Saten looked at his friend with a frown, while at the same time cruelly berating himself in his own head.

 _This is what I get for worrying about Tomo-chan and his weird habits. Knowing him he would have come here by himself and then get in trouble with some snobby, rich esper, or worse… Speaking of which..._

As Saten's thought trailed off, he turned his attention back to Tomohisa in order to ask him a question that popped into his mind.

"So Tomo-chan… Just as a way to change the subject a bit… You still haven't told me if Chibi is going to be there with Ku-... Shirai-san. I don't know about you, but I would very much like to know whether or not I am going to die as soon as we get to this place."

Saten saw Tomohisa sigh yet again, his friend putting a hand up to his face to pinch the bridge of their nose. After a moment of this, Tomohisa gestured at Saten in an annoyed way as he turned to look back out of the bus window.

"Saten-san… How many times do I have to say it? Shirai-san told me that Misaka-san was sorry for what happened last week, and that the next time we see him that he will be on his best behavior. Now… I will not say that I'm not hesitant about meeting Misaka-san again, but I have faith in Shirai-san that nothing bad will happen when we meet them again."

Saten looked at his friend for a moment before he sighed and shrugged in a gesture of complete surrender for the situation. Saten leaned back into his chair as he stared at his friend with an almost vicious glare. After a moment of this, Saten made a comment in an offhanded way so that Tomohisa could hear him.

"Well… I would say that it would be hard for you to be hesitant… Considering the fact that you've always wanted to go to the High District…"

Saten instantly noticed a bead of sweat to form on Tomohisa's brow, and the expression complete panic appearing on his friends face. Tomohisa turned to look at Saten with a worried grimace on his face.

"Saten… I will admit that wouldn't want to turn down a chance to go to the High District if I could help it… And… Well it is a very rare thing to go to the District when you aren't a student of any of the school's there."

Saten glared over at Tomohisa in a rage and gestured at his friend in a rather angry gesture.

"So let me guess… You are the reason that we are going to this place where I would never want to go to. A place filled with snobby rich people and snobby high level espers is a place where I would rather stay well away from, but is apparently a place that you seem gungho to run right into."

Tomohisa sighed and shook his head at Saten's to true guess as to the reason why they were going to the High District, shrugging as he looked back to his friend.

"Well I didn't really have that much of a choice as to what we could take as an apology, considering that Shirai-san was mostly looking to apologize to you for Misaka-san's rudeness. He was asking me about things that you would have liked for an apology, and knowing that you would probably ask for something strange, I simply suggested that a day in the High District would cheer you up."

Saten sighed and shot his friend a venomous glare as he received the revelation, scratching the back of his head as he attempted to reign in his anger.

"So… Let me get this straight… Shirai-san believed you when you said that I would want to go to the High District, a place I would not go to otherwise, after how I acted last week? And by the way… What do you mean by 'knowing you, you would ask for something strange?' When have I ever asked for something so strange that it has become something you have to look out for?"

Tomohisa sighed and looked back at Saten, a knowing and annoyed look on his face as he did so.

"Well… Should I remind you of 'those' things that you were trying to buy off of an auction site this week? You know… The ones you were trying to borrow money from me for?"

As soon as Tomohisa had finished talking, Saten's face lit up bright red, and for the first time in the entire conversation, he looked away from his friend and outside the rain streaked window in embarrassment.

 _Of all things… Did you really have to bring that up Tomo-chan?! I will admit that it was a moment of stupidity that drove me to that… But still… Those were Luka-chan's! If they had turned out to be the real deal… Then I would have had a treasure of almost immeasurable wealth… minus the amount that I would have been paying for it._

At the moment that Saten finished his thought, the bus's automatic jingle began to play over the speaker, followed closely by an automated message for all the passengers.

" _ **Attention all passengers. We are now approaching stop ***, the final stop for access to district ** and the first and only stop for access to district **. Please make sure you gather up all of your belongings before you exit the vehicle, and please have a wonderful day."**_

Tomohisa nodded his head at the automated message, slowly standing up and stretching on account for how long he had been riding the bus for. After a moment of this, Tomohisa turned to Saten with a smug smile adorning his face.

"So then… Are we getting off here Saten-san, or are you going to give me another idiotic excuse on why you shouldn't go?"

Saten looked at Tomohisa with a red tinge still evident on his cheeks and a mouth twisted into a grimace, but after a moment stood up along with his friend to go and stand by the bus door.

Once the bus came to a stop in front of the covered bus stop the two boys rushed through the open door to get into the shelter before getting soaked by the rain. Behind the two the bus's door closed with a hydraulic hiss, and the vehicle drove off, leaving Tomohisa and Saten standing in the relative dryness of bus shelter.

After a moment of silence save for the falling rain, Tomohisa pulled out his phone and began to scroll through an app with a bored expression on his face while he did so. In the meanwhile Saten was the one who who cautiously stuck his head out from underneath the shelter to look up at the gray cloud filled sky.

After yet another moment of this, Saten sighed and looked over at Tomohisa, a grimace on his face.

"Tomo-chan… Don't you think you should've checked the weather reports for the day before you decided to drag the both of us out here without umbrellas or raincoats? Considering the conditions, shouldn't we head back and tell Shirai-san that we weren't able to come because of the rain?"

Tomohisa sighed and slowly raised up his phone so that Saten could see the screen and the Academy City weather app that was displayed on it. The Judgement agent pointed at the app, particularly towards the timestamp that was only 15 seconds away from the current time. Tomohisa sarcastically grinned over at Saten as he to began to stare up at the cloud filled sky.

"Unfortunately for you, I have been checking the weather reports, so there is no way that you are getting out of this one due to the rain. Just a couple more seconds now and we'll be on our way again."

Saten looked skeptically between Tomohisa and the other boy's phone before he sighed and gestured up to the rain filled skies as he began his retort at Tomohisa.

"Come on now Tomo-chan. You have to be smart enough to realize that weather reports aren't always accurate. Even here in Academy City there is no way that a report would be 100 percent-...?!"

Just as Saten was about to finish his explanation, the sound of rain falling to earth that had filled the air for the greater part of the morning suddenly stopped, leaving the world in an almost perfect silence.

Tomohisa looked at his phone in a nonchalant manner before looking back at Saten with a smug grin on his face.

"Well… You are right about one thing Saten-san. The weather reports wasn't 100 percent accurate. According to the timestamp, the rain should have stopped 3 seconds ago."

Saten stood there staring at the sky, which was slowly clearing of clouds and letting rays of sunlight shine down, with a look of pure disgust on his face. After a few seconds, Saten sighed and began to shake his head.

"You know… I really, really, really hate the W.T.D. right now. I mean really! How can something be so precise all the time? It's like it exists to prove people wrong or something."

Saten heard Tomohisa chuckle in a form of mockery, before gesturing off in the direction that the two were supposed to go in.

"Well I'm not entirely certain as to how the W.T.D. is so precise, because there have been hundreds of smarter people who have slaved away trying to make it so. Anyway… Shall we finally get going, before you come up with some other way to slow us down?"

Saten sighed and shook his head in an annoyed manner, shrugging in a clear gesture of surrender to the inevitable.

The two boys began to walk down the the rain slicked sidewalks as more and more the clouds began to burn away in the early summer sun. The light began to reflect off of the puddle's in the street and the glass buildings that lined the skyline. Both Tomohisa and Saten had to protect their eyes from going blind.

The two boys crossed a street at a crosswalk a few moments away from the bus stop, and found themselves walking parallel to a tall red brick wall with black iron pickets lining the top of it. Tomohisa did not seem to care for the wall, but Saten instantly noticed the wall and a grimace slowly began to form on his face.

"You know… If I didn't know any better… I would say that that the people on the other side don't want us to enter. Why in the world would that be Tomo-chan?"

Tomohisa sighed and shook his head, focusing on following the directions that Kuroko had given him earlier in the week. He gave only a passing glance to the wall that Saten was glaring at before sighing and shaking his head.

"Saten-san… This is just to keep people who aren't students in the district from just walking in and getting the same benefits as the students who go to school in the district. It's a sort of a way to protect the incentive that these schools have compared to many of the other schools in the city."

Saten looked back at the wall, and this time there was an even deeper grimace on his face as he stared at it. He began to make aggressive gestures at the wall, turning back to look at Tomohisa with an annoyed look on his face.

"So Academy City just allows the people in this district to treat outsiders like vermin that have to be denied access? Again with the bullshit preferential treatment that espers get compared the rest of us. How in the world do they keep getting away with stuff like this?!"

Tomohisa sighed and began looking at the wall with greater attention, this time trying to figure out a way to silence Saten. In an instant a thought struck him and he turned back around to look at Saten with a smug grin.

"Let me be the one to ask you a question this time Saten-san. If this wall was the barrier for a concert venue for your beloved Luka-chan, would you consider this wall adequate defense in keeping the gate crashers from ruining the show?"

Saten turned back to look at the the wall, his face now turned into a face of contemplation as he focused on the red brick construction.

 _Hmmm… Well the wall is a good start, but considering the lengths I would go to get into a Luka concert… They would need guards every few feet along the wall, some security camera drones patrolling the area above the wall, and… Wait…_

Saten returned his gaze to Tomohisa, an angry grimace as he realized the trick that his friend had just pulled on him.

"Ha, Ha very funny Tomo-chan. I don't care how hard you try but I'm never going to admit to accepting a walls like this."

Tomohisa shrugged at Saten and shook his head in sarcastic resignation as the two continued to walk down the street.

"So it's a perfectly fine wall if you want to keep people you don't like out, but it's not fine when it is keeping you out huh? Don't worry, I understand you perfectly Saten-san."

Saten did not say a single thing in retort to his friend, choosing instead to remain quiet for the remainder of the journey to the second major point on the trip.

Rounding a corner on the red brick wall, the two boys were greeted with the sight of what looked to be like a terminal at a train station. Under an archway fashioned out of a mixture of marble and the same red brick as the wall on either side of it, several finely uniformed students of the district could be seen walking up to several turnstiles and tapping passes to an electronic reader and gaining access to the district, or walking out of the district on their way out into Academy City proper.

To one side of the various students entering and exiting the district, there was a pseudo-security office which was clearly staffed by members of Judgement, all wearing uniforms similar to the ones on those passing by. Near a windowed counter of the office, there was an electronic pass gate, a clear indication of where Tomohisa and Saten should go.

Tomohisa was the first to walk up to the counter, an excited grin on his face as he did so, with Saten trailing behind a few step with an annoyed grimace.

At the counter was a high school girl wearing the characteristic green armband with a white shield on it that represented Judgement. When she looked up from whatever she was doing as Tomohisa approached, she looked up at the middle school boy at first with curiosity, but the second she saw the boy's uniform, her curiosity turned into annoyed scrutiny.

Tomohisa was the one to initiate the conversation.

"Hello there! My name is-...?"

The Judgement girl held up a hand to silence Tomohisa's talking before responding with an authoritarian tone, born either from the age gap between the two, the school type, her position, or maybe a mixture of them.

"Hello there… I'm sorry to inconvenience you… but could you please hand over your Academy City ID's for me? I have to run a check before allowing you to enter."

Tomohisa looked at the Judgement officer in confusion for a moment before turning to look at Saten for some kind of clue as to what was going on. Saten simply shrugged in an almost equal confusion, but gave Tomohisa a look saying 'What kind of treatment were you expecting?'

Tomohisa sighed and looked back at the Judgement officer, with a grin he obviously hoped was friendly on his face.

"Uhm… I'm not a hundred certain about this... But the friend who invited us to the district said that all we had to give was our name and his in order to get in. He never said anything about-...?"

Again the Judgement officer held up her hand, this time holding it out and beckoning for the ID's of the two boys.

"Yes… Well either your 'friend' isn't up to date on current events or they lied to you… either way, if you want to get in you are going to have to give me your ID's."

Tomohisa looked a complete loss for words, but once he noticed the serious look on the girl's face, he gave up and fished out his ID, turning and extending his hand for Saten's.

Saten glared between both Tomohisa and the girl for a few moments with a grimace on his face, but after an equally venomous glare from Tomohisa, Saten relented and fished out his own ID and placed it in Tomohisa's hand.

Tomohisa reached out to place the two ID's in the girl's hand, but the Judgement officer reached out and snatched the ID's out of his hands, instantly beginning to run all the information on the ID.

After a few seconds of silent information searching, the girl's eyebrow raised in surprise as she began reading the information that was being displayed for both Tomohisa and Saten.

"So… You are a Judgement officer, aren't you mister Kaname-san… And it does appear that you were invited here today… And the person who invited you was…"

The girl's eyes widened in surprise and she jumped up to her feet before bowing in apology to the two younger boys. Both Tomohisa and Saten looked at each other in confusion as the Judgement officer gave a stammering apology to them.

"I-I-I'm s-s-so sorry! I-If I had know that you were friend of Shirai Kuroko…. I am so sorry!"

Both Tomohisa and Saten instantly looked at each other in surprise before both raising their hands in an attempt to calm the girl down as they began to garner attention from the passing students.

"Yeah, Yeah we're friends of Shirai-san… Well… I'm more of his partner in Judgement rather than his friend. Is… Is Shirai-san a big deal around here or something?"

The Judgement officer sat back down on the other side of the counter with a worried look on her, looking around as if she were being watched.

"Well… To the Judgement officer's here, a high district student going off to help out with Academy City proper is quite the interesting thing… and… well considering the regular company he keeps…"

The Judgement officer sighed and shook her head, turning her attention back to the information that was displayed before looking back up at Tomohisa.

"Okay then… It looks like you two are scheduled to stay here until about around curfew time… but… I would say that it would be good to leave earlier than that in order to make things easy for yourselfs."

Saten, who had been silent for most of the conversation, began to speak up in an annoyed tone in response to the Judgement officer's recommendation.

"Why is that? Would we be wearing out our welcome if we stay longer than that, and why is there even a limit on our-...?!"

Saten was interrupted when he received an evil look from Tomohisa and the Judgement officer waving her hands back and forth in order to wave away any misunderstanding.

"No, No not at all! It isn't that you would wear out your welcome… it's just that… there have been a few… incidents that have caused residents of the district to become a bit… on edge."

Tomohisa raised an eyebrow in interest as he looked at the Judgement officer.

"Really? That's strange… Kuroko didn't say anything about these incidents while I was talking to him this week… Have they been happening fairly recently?"

The Judgement officer waved her hands back and forth to dissuade any further conversation, a bead of panicked sweat. She reached down and pressed a button which opened the electronic pass gate to the side of the two boys.

"No, No… I shouldn't talk about this much more than that. The case is still being investigated… Please just go on and enjoy your day."

With the conversation ended abruptly like that, both Tomohisa and Saten looked at eachother in confusion, neither of them having anything to say that wouldn't make the situation even more awkward than it already was. After a moment the two boys shrugged at each other and walked through the pass gate and into the plaza beyond the terminal.

Upon walking into the plaza both boys had a reaction to what they saw, Tomohisa's a look of wonder at the number of shops and the types of things being offered, while Saten had a scowl on his face as he noticed all of the students of the High District looking at both him and Tomohisa with looks of curiosity and mild disgust.

Saten tapped Tomohisa on the shoulder while the other boy was looking with wonder filled eyes at the various shops and restaurants. Tomohisa looked over at Saten with an annoyed face while Saten glared back at Tomohisa with an equally annoyed glare.

"What in the world is it now Saten-san? Are you going to say that the sun that is coming out is somehow offensive to your skin and that you have to leave?"

Saten clicked his tongue as he felt the stares of all the High District students looking at him and Tomohisa. He gestured first to Tomohisa and the at the surroundings in an impatient manner.

"Aren't you supposed to be leading to Shirai-san before running off and messing around with the shops? Can you even afford any of the stuff around here without his money?"

Tomohisa looked ashamed for a second before sighing and nodding his head in reluctant agreement.

"Yeah… You're right. If I made the mistake of buying something here right now… I might not be able to eat until I get the allowance for next month."

Saten sighed and grimaced at his friend as Tomohisa began to look around the plaza in order to get his bearings. After a moment of this Tomohisa got Saten's attention with a gesture and pointed at one of the roads that lead out of the plaza.

"That's the way we have to go. Shirai-san told me that we had to walk down that road there until we come to another plaza with a fountain in it. That is where we are supposed to be meeting him."

Saten sighed and nodded at Tomohisa, gesturing for his friend to go ahead of him.

"Well lead on then Tomo-chan. I don't want to have to stay here for any longer than I have too, so I at the very least I want to meet Shirai-san and receive whatever apology he has for so I don't hurt his feelings."

With that the two boys set off down the street in a very similar manner to how they first entered into the plaza, Tomohisa with an excited look on his face as he saw more and more of what the district had to offer, and Saten with a grimace on his face as the occasional student they passed by gave them a look of confusion or disgust.

After walking through the district for a minute or two, Saten and Tomohisa arrived at a slightly smaller plaza to the one by the terminal, though it lacked the fountain that the two were looking for. Tomohisa instantly stopped and had a confused look on his, which caused Saten to stop and look at his friend with an equally confused look.

"What's the matter Tomo-chan? Are we… Are we not supposed to pass through here?"

Tomohisa developed a sweat bead on his forehead as Saten glared at him. The boy looked around the plaza in confusion and scratched the back of his head as he did so.

"Well… I don't really know to be honest. I… don't think we have to go through here to get to the meeting point… Shirai-san said that it would have been the first plaza we reached… Did he make a mistake when he was giving me directions?"

Saten sighed and very slowly began to turn around to face the direction the two boys had just come from. With an annoyed look on his face Saten focused entirely on his friend.

"Well then… Let's just head back down the way we came to see if it wasn't you who made a mistake. If it turns out that you didn't make a mistake, then how about you call-...?!"

Whatever Saten was about to say got caught in his throat as he ran into something, fell onto his back on to the semi-damp ground, and felt something warm and wet spreading quickly across the front of his shirt.

Saten could hear Tomohisa speaking to him as if he was far away, a slight ringing in his ears from lightly hitting his head on the ground.

"Saten-san! Are you okay?! Seriously now… You need to watch where you are go-…?!"

Noticing how Tomohisa's concerned berating suddenly trailed off, Saten slowly began to raise his head to look at what in the world had happened.

The first thing the boy saw was that the entire front of his shirt was covered entirely in something that looked like coffee, which was quickly staining his shirt a light brown color.

Sitting opposite of him on the ground was a boy of similar height and age to Saten, with a face that gave off the feeling that he had a very refined upbringing. He had short, well kept black hair, and he was wearing what was obviously a Tokiwodai uniform, which also had a coffee stain like the one on Saten's shirt, but it was much smaller than the giant blob that was on Saten's shirt. Lying on the ground next to the boy in the Tokiwodai uniform was an empty coffee cup from which the accursed liquid had come from, while located on his other side was an old but well maintained gunbai war fan.

The boy, who was obviously groggy from falling to the ground in a similar manner to Saten, looked up at Saten with a curious look.

After a moment of staring at him, the Tokiwodai student jumped up and bowed down to Saten with a concerned look on his face.

"I-I am so sorry for running into you! I was in such a rush to get to where I was going… In any case, I am so, so, so sorry!"

Saten felt a bead of sweat begin to form on his forehead as he felt the overwhelming pressure of the apologizing boy. After a moment of sitting there being apologized to, Saten grinned with a reassuring expression as he began to stand up, reaching over and picking up the gunbai.

"Please… Don't worry about it that much. I wasn't looking where I was going either, so I'd say that we are both at fault here. Here… You dropped this."

The Tokiwodai student accepted his ancient tool with both hands and a second bow to Saten, before stepping back and bowing towards him again.

"Thank you so much sir, but I must repay you for the mistake of running into you! I was the one carrying the cup, and I am the one with the lesser stain on my clothes. I must repay you in order to have a clear conscience."

The Tokiwodai student began to dig through his pockets, searching for his wallet obviously to both Saten and Tomohisa. The two boys looked at each other with worried expressions as the the Tokiwodai student pulled out a leather bound checkbook. The Tokiwodai student pulled out a pen and looked over at Saten with a curious glare.

"Tell me… How much does it cost to to replace your shirt? I am willing to pay any amount to rectify my mistake."

Saten, not wanting to disclose the most likely insane gap in prices for outfits he and the Tokiwodai student had, waved his hand in a dismissive manner at the student.

"Please… Don't worry about it at all. Me and my friend are going to meet another of our friends, so I can just ask for a change of clothes from him and just toss out this shirt."

The Tokiwodai student looked at Saten in confusion for a few moments before realizing that the two boy's in front of him were wearing uniforms for schools that weren't part of the High District. His expression instantly changed from one of curiosity to one of outright suspicion. The Tokiwodai student began to grip his gunbai slightly harder as he glared at Saten.

"Ah… I see… You are going to see a friend are you…. Tell me… Who is this friend that you are going to go visit?"

Tomohisa grinned over at the Tokiwodai student, completely oblivious to the look of suspicion that the student was giving Saten.

"Oh, we are going to see another Tokiwodai student at the moment… You might know him in fact. His name is Shirai Kuroko."

There was a slight twitch in the student's eyebrow as he put his free hand up to his face in an effort to calm himself down. Saten, instantly seeing that danger sign, raised his hands up in a gesture that almost indicated surrender.

"Now hold on there! Why in the world are you so-...!?"

The next moment, when Saten was going to finish his question, he found himself on the floor again, shoved down by some invisible force. In his groggy state, Saten realized that Tomohisa was down on the ground as well, most likely due to the same force which had put him on the ground.

After lying there for a moment, Saten again began to get up into a sitting position. As he did so, he noticed that the Tokiwodai student was standing over the two boys, pointing his gongbi at them as what amounted to a tiny dust devil swirled around him.

As Saten felt fear slowly take root in his heart, he could not help but also sigh inside of his head at the stupidity of the situation.

… _The one time I try to not start something with a fucking high level esper, something happens regardless. Do I have the kind of face that just makes high level esper's hate me?_

As he actually sighed aloud, the Tokiwodai student pointed his gunbai at the two downed boys with a glare of annoyance on his face.

"I'm sorry… but I don't believe you for a second when you say that you are friends with Shirai-san, as he would never make friends with filth like you who sneak into where they don't belong. As punishment for your lie, I, Kongou Mitsuka will-...?!"

Before the esper could finish his pompous declaration, he was unceremoniously slammed into the ground from above by someone dropping down on him. The voice of the person who dropped down chuckled a bit as they turned their head towards sitting Saten and Tomohisa.

"Really now… Isn't this the second time I've done this for you guys? Do you guys have faces that piss off… Ruriko-san… Did you get in a fight with coffee steamer or something?"

As Saten looked up, he could not help but sigh one more time as he saw Shirai Kuroko standing on the back of the other esper, a coffee cup firmly in the grasp of his hand.


	5. A Certain Normal Day - Part 2

**_The chapter everyone was waiting for... Not really. Everyone, Please Read, Review, and Enjoy!_**

* * *

"Again… Can I please say that I'm so, so, so sorry Shirai-san! Please… Believe me! Had I known that those two were friends of yours I would have treated them with far more courtesy than I did! Please… I must ask you for you to forgive my ignorance!"

… _Perhaps instead of asking forgiveness for ignorance you should ask forgiveness for your arrogance… But really… At this point if it would get you to shut the hell up, then I might be willing to forgive you for anything!_

With a sigh to himself, Saten finished adjusting the Tokiwodai uniform that he had received from Kuroko for the final time, grimacing slightly as he looked at himself in the dressing room mirror.

… _I won't say that these don't look nice… Actually… this is far more comfortable than my summer uniform, even though it has an extra layer. But… There is no way in hell that I am going to admit something like that to anyone._

Continuing to grimace, Saten shook his head and walked out of the dressing room and made his way to the lobby of the dry cleaners. Once there he saw two Tokiwodai students, Kuroko and the one named Kongou Mitsuka, standing by the door, Mitsuka bowing at almost a 90 degree angle towards Kuroko, who was looking down at the other with a embarrassed and confused smile on his face.

Kuroko looked away from Mitsuka and conveniently looked towards where Saten was standing, the Judgement agent noticing the Level 0 instantly. Kuroko expression changed over to a true smile and he waved Saten over.

"Hey Ruriko-san! Are you finally ready to-...!?"

Before Kuroko could finish talking to Saten, Mitsuka also noticed that the level 0 was in the same room as him. The Tokiwodai student rushed over to Saten and bowed in a similar manner to how he had bowed to Kuroko, a clear apologetic look on his face as he did so.

"Please… Ruriko-san was it? I must beg you for your forgiveness yet again! Had I had any idea that you were friends with Shirai-san… And if things hadn't been how they were lately… Anyway, I am not usually that aggressive and such… so…"

… _Really now… Could this guy be more annoying? First he threatens to beat me up and then when he finds out who he messed with he begs for forgiveness. Why doesn't he just get the message and shut up?!_

As Mitsuka's begging continued to drone in pointless muttering, Saten sighed internally as he looked over at Kuroko, who looked like he was experiencing a similar feeling to the level 0.

The judgement agent however, decided not to give Mitsuka any form of attention, instead sighing and looking at Saten with a half grin on his face.

"So Ruriko-san… How about we get going and meet up Aniki and Kaname-san? I get the feeling that if we leave them alone for too long, something bad is bound to happen."

Saten looked at Kuroko with a confused gaze before spending a moment to look over at Mitsuka, who looked like they were about to cry in embarrassment. Sighing, Saten looked back at Kuroko and gestured toward the counter of dry cleaners.

"Ummm… I would like to get going… But…"

Kuroko seemed to instantly get what Saten was saying and began to wave away the level 0's concerns.

"Oh you don't have to worry about your uniform. I've already taken the liberty and paid for the cost of cleaning it up, and the staff have assured me that they will have it done by the time you guys are going to leave."

Mitsuka looked up at Saten at that moment, with what Saten assumed to be a reassuring grin on his face.

"I had offered to pay for your dry cleaning by the way… As a way to say sorry for earlier. But Shirai-san… said that it wasn't necessary…"

Both Saten and Kuroko again choose to ignore the other Tokiwodai student, this time it was Saten that initiated the ignoring.

"So… Where in the world is Tomo-chan and Chibi-san? You sent me down here while you were dealing with the situation from earlier, so I didn't quite catch where they are."

Both Kuroko and Mitsuka looked like they were confused, and for the briefest of moments Kuroko almost looked at Mitsuka for any idea about what Saten was talking about.

However, just before the two locked eyes, a look of understanding dawned on Kuroko's eyes and he returned his gaze back to Saten.

"Ah… You mean Kaname-san and Aniki, don't you Ruriko-san? Yes they are nearby at a cafe that me and Aniki frequent, so he should be on his good behaviour, though even then it's only a matter of time until something pisses him off."

Mitsuka also chimed in at that moment, hoping again to get Kuroko and Saten to notice that he was there.

"Didn't Misaka-san cause such a scene there that made it so they couldn't operate for a week or two? I didn't really hear that much about it, but from what I did hear three people were sent to the hospital."

Hearing this new piece of did not seem to surprise Saten, only confirming to the level 0 that he didn't want to be anywhere near the terror that was the Level 5.

However, comparing the two situations to each other, at that moment, Saten would have rather been with the monstrous Level 5 than listening to the constant annoyance of Mitsuka. So, with an air of depression about it, Saten gestured toward the door, again ignoring what Mitsuka had said.

"Well then… Shirai-san, lead the way if you will."

With that both Saten and Kuroko set out of the dry cleaners and down the street, the level 0 following the Judgement agent. The pair had made it about a block when from behind, Mitsuka ran up behind them, a worried expression on his face.

"Shirai-san… Ruriko-san… Please, I must ask you to forgive me properly for this screw up on my part so that this doesn't become a problem later. I would hate it if this puts a damper on our relationship going forward."

… _I believe that ship has already sailed… Honestly I wonder how Kuroko can manage to not get angry at this guy for how-...!?_

At that moment Saten decided to look over at Kuroko, only to find that the Judgement agent had stopped walking and turned to face Mitsuka. The Judgement agent had a slight grin on his face, though if one looked in his eyes they would see that the grin was not shared there.

"Kongou-san… could you please stop apologizing just because you did something wrong this time? I have multiple times put in complaints about your vigilantism to the school and the higher ups in Judgement, and every time they get back to me saying that they actually don't believe that you are doing anything wrong. So… If you are looking for me to forgive you for your vigilantism, then I must say that you are going to have to wait a while."

In response to Kuroko's long berating, Mitsuka had a shocked and embarrassed expression, that caused him to step back two steps, his mouth opening and closing in a panic. After a few moments of this Mitsuka looked at the ground, muttering to himself in a rage as Kuroko turned on his heel to continue walking, Saten following behind him with a confused look on his face.

After a couple more blocks of walking, and noticing that Mitsuka wasn't following them anymore, Kuroko let out a sigh and turned to grin at Saten.

"Sorry about that Ruriko-san… Though knowing you, you were probably happy that I was berating someone for getting away with bad behaviour just for being a high level esper."

Saten looked at Kuroko with a slightly surprised look on his face before shaking his head.

"To be honest… I'm far more glad to not have him annoying us than I am to see him get what he deserves."

Kuroko grinned in agreement at Saten's response and gestured in the direction where they had left Mitsuka.

"He can be quite annoying can't he? He is supposed to be one of the top ten espers at Tokiwodai, but the way he carries himself is more akin to a common delinquent than a proper member of the school… Though considering who he shares that distinction with, his manners aren't really that big of a surprise."

Saten had to fight not to chuckle at what Kuroko said, and instead decided to change the subject off of Mitsuka.

"Speaking of which… Didn't you say that you were worried about Chibi-san causing a scene at wherever we are headed? Are you certain that it was wise to leave Tomo-chan alone with him? I doubt there is anything he can do to stop a Level 5 when they're angry."

Saten saw a quizzical look overtake Kuroko's face, and instead of giving an answer, the Judgement agent posed a question of his own.

"Ruriko-san… I really must ask… Do you give everyone you know such… interesting nicknames, or do you only give them to people who you don't really care about?"

Saten felt his face go bright red in embarrassment and he waved his hands back and forth in denial.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I don't give those sort of nicknames to everyone I meet… I do respect the boundaries of most everyone… barring a few exceptions. I just give the nicknames to people who aren't going to get angry at me like Tomo-chan…"

As Saten't explanation trailed off, Kuroko nodded in what seemed to be agreement and grinned back at the level 0.

"And people whom you don't really care for, like Aniki… I must say that it isn't a bad system Ruriko-san… Though it might get you into trouble if you aren't careful."

Saten winced slightly as he remembered all the times that habit of his had gotten him into trouble, but he shook it off just in time for Kuroko to ask him another question.

"So Ruriko-san… What in the world would my nickname be?"

Saten looked at Kuroko for a few moments with a blank expression, before turning his head away to hide the shame that he felt.

"Well… If I had to be honest… K… Kurokochi was a name that was floating around…"

Saten slowly looked back towards Kuroko to gauge the reaction, and saw the Judgement agent looking at him with an expression of mild disappointment.

"... Ruriko-san… That is… quite an unoriginal name if I must say so… Do you believe that I have a lack of personality or do you think that I have a fondness for basketball?"

Saten grimaced at the response he had received, but said nothing as he had pretty much expected it. As he sighed, he and Kuroko rounded a corner, and the conversation of nicknames was dropped when someone called out their names."

"... Ah! Shirai-san! Saten-san! Over here!"

Both Saten and Kuroko looked over at the source of the voice, which was Tomohisa, standing up and waving his hand back and forth to get their attention. Once he had gained that, he took his seat at one of the tables inside the patio of the cafe that was the destination of the other two.

This greeting caused Saten to sigh slightly as he approached his friend, a slightly annoyed expression forming on his face.

"... Tomo-chan… Do you really have to call out to us when we knew you were going to be here? And since I don't see him… Does this mean that Chibi-san ran-...!?"

It was at that moment that Saten got up close to Tomohisa and found out that his friend was sitting with someone, and found that person to be Makoto. This didn't really surprise Saten much as he had expected Makoto to be there, but what did surprise him was the fact that the Level 5 esper wasn't wearing his usual mostly pissed off expression, but rather what looked like a green version of the mask that Saten had seen him wearing a week ago.

As soon as Makoto noticed that Saten and Kuroko had joined him, he turned and gave them a quick, yet obviously cheerful wave.

"Ah… Ruriko-kun, Kuroko. Quite a pleasure for you to finally join us. Did everything go well at the cleaners? I was slightly worried that Ruriko-kun would have problems paying for the service."

Saten stood there slightly shocked, completely confused as to the disconnect between Makoto's current personality and the one Saten had known him for. He had seen a similar personality a week ago, but he had only seen a few seconds of it.

Tomohisa, who had been sitting with Makoto for at least an hour, could only scratch his cheek in an embarrassed manner, while Makoto's friend and roommate, Kuroko, looked on as his eyerow twitched and he had an angry grin on his face as he looked at the level 5.

There was a brief moment of silence over the scene as the other three stared at Makoto, who seemed fine with the situation, seeing as how his expression was hidden behind his mask.

After that brief moment of silence, Kuroko finally sighed and began pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You don't have to worry about Ruriko-san, as you can plainly see. I gave him a spare uniform and paid for his clothes to be looked after… Though while we were leaving we might have pissed off Kongou-san."

Makoto made a gesture that seemed to be meant to show his displeasure.

"Kuroko… You know that you should be nicer to him, considering that he is a well respected member of our school. It would be a real shame if bad blood formed between you because of this."

Saten, his mind still reeling from the completely different personality, leaned towards Kuroko to whisper in his ear.

"... Hey… is it me, or is Chibi-san completely different from how he was last week? Is it because he was in a bad mood last time, or is he just in a good mood now?"

Kuroko sighed and shook his head, gesturing toward Makoto with an annoyed gesture.

"No… How you saw him last week was him in his regular mood, as angry and rage inducing as it was… And the reason he is acting like this now is because I allowed him to wear a piece of his collection out today in exchange for him to be on his best behaviour."

… _He… He has a collection of those?_

As that fact burrowed into Saten's mind, Kuroko gestured for both Makoto and Tomohisa to stand up.

"Well then… come on you two, let's get going, we don't want to keep our reservation waiting."

This statement made Saten's shock frozen brain move again, and caused the Level 0's gaze to shift toward Kuroko again.

"Wait a sec… What do you by reservation? We aren't going to to chill here for a bit? I mean… I really don't want to smell coffee right now, but I would rather take a seat for a bit."

Kuroko looked up at Saten and gestured back towards the cafe.

"Well I definitely would prefer staying here than going straight to the restaurant, but… It seems that we have already overstayed our welcome."

Looking back at the cafe, Saten could see that the cafe workers and the fellow cafe goers were keenly aware of who it was behind the very childish green mask, and each was displaying their nervousness about the situation in their own way.

The aforementioned Level 5 in a green mask made an annoyed gesture at Kuroko in response to what the Judgement agent had said.

"Why in the world do we have to go so fast Kuroko? Isn't it better sometimes to just sit down and take it-...!?"

Before Makoto could finish talking, Kuroko reached out and, without any form of malice in his expression or his action, grabbed hold of Makoto's ear and yanked the Level 5 up onto his feet.

Even without seeing the Level 5's face, everyone knew that the situation had been promptly and handily taken care of.

A few moments later, the group of four was walking down the street, one of their number rubbing the side of his head in a clear show of pain.

Once they were a fair ways away from the cafe, Kuroko, who had a silent emotionless face on after dealing with Makoto, finally sighed and grinned at Saten and Tomohisa.

"Well now… I guess I should tell you about the restaurant we are going to, shouldn't I? I certainly see no point in keeping it a secret."

Saten nodded in agreement with Kuroko's explanation, the level 0 looking jokingly annoyed at the Judgement agent.

"Yeah… It would be quite bad if you reserved us for a shop that specializes in some weird sort of cuisine… though with you rich people, usually what is considered normal for you is actually absurd for…?"

Before Saten could finish talking, he began to trail off as he began to look around him, the back of his neck tingling.

 _Is… Is it just me or…?_

Noticing how Saten had trailed off in his retort, Kuroko looked at the level 0 with a confused gaze.

"Ruriko-san… Is something the matter?"

Saten looked back at Kuroko, an equally confused look on his face.

"I'm sorry but… Is anyone else feeling like they're being watched? I can't help but shake the feeling that..!?"

Saten choose that exact moment to turn towards Tomohisa, and when he caught a glimpse of his friend shooting a furious sidelong glance towards him, the level 0 nearly jumped back in fright.

"Hold up there Tomo-chan! Why in the world are you looking at me like I killed your dog or something?!"

Tomohisa, who looked like he would at first deny what he was doing, eventually began to glare at Saten, specifically the uniform Saten was wearing, with renewed force.

"Well I'm sorry… I was going to only lightly complain about the fact that Saten got to wear a Tokiwodai uniform, but now… I am so pissed that the uniform looks so good on him, despite knowing that he doesn't even care about the fact that he is wearing that. I mean look at him! He practically looks like he belongs in Tokiwodai!"

As Saten felt a flush of embarrassment start to form on his face, he knew that its formation would be accelerated when both Kuroko and Makoto turned and began to critique his outfit.

Kuroko was the first of the two to add in his two cents.

"... Yes… Now that you put it like that Tomohisa… I have been feeling that Ruriko-san did look rather good in the uniform ever since I first saw it with him on…. Perhaps you should consider a career in modeling Ruriko-san."

As Saten's blush moved up another level of embarrassment, Makoto nodded in agreement, the green mask shifting on his face as he did so.

"I wouldn't agree more with you Kuroko! Usually I would say that the uniform makes the person special, but in this case I will have to say that the person that makes the uniform special."

Both Saten and Kuroko unconsciously twitched in annoyance at Makoto's attempt with flattery, and the two sighed and began their conversation anew.

"So… You were saying something about telling us about the restaurant we are going to? How about you get to that Shirai-san."

Kuroko nodded at Saten's request, a slightly annoyed look on his face as he ignored the somewhat panicking Makoto.

"Well… the restaurant we are going to is a semi-proper french restaurant that offers the several courses that french cooking is known for, but because of how popular it is you have to reserve your time and the number of courses you want in advance. I put us down for the full three course they offer since I rarely get the chance to go there."

Saten nodded absentmindedly as the group continued to walk down the side of the street, both Saten and Kuroko ignoring the panicking Makoto, while Tomohisa silently looked between the other three, a concerned look on his face.

After a few more moments of walking down the street, Kuroko led the group into one of the many buildings that seemed the same to Saten's eyes, and inside was a well decorated restaurant that was full of people.

Almost instantly one of the waitresses noticed the group walking into the restaurant, and led them to a table near the back of the room with a smile. Once the four of them were seated, the waitresses went and grabbed what looked like a check and brought it over to the table.

"So… Shirai-san… You have to reservation for four people… and that reservation includes the normal 3 course special of the day. You are a little bit early, so how about we start you off with a light salad?"

Kuroko nodded at the waitress, who smiled and walked away to take care of that order. Once the waitress was gone, the Judgement agent sighed and smiled over at Saten and Tomohisa.

"Well… this might be a bit late and redundant for me to ask this, but… How are you enjoying our little district here?"

Tomohisa looked as if he was about to say something, but Saten interrupted him with a loud sigh that clearly displayed his mood.

"Oh I find this place absolutely wonderful! I mean with the gatekeepers researching us like we were criminals and the inhabitants also attacking us, I would say that this is a great place for us lower level esper's to be."

Almost immediately Kuroko chuckled at what Saten said, even though the look of Tomohisa's face was a look of pure horror.

"I had an idea that you would say something like that Ruriko-san… But I am surprised that the gatekeepers would give you any trouble, considering that you're a member of Judgement Tomohisa. Were you two acting suspicious at all while you were coming in today?"

Tomohisa sighed and gestured off into the air absentmindedly in response to Kuroko's question.

"Well… I would say that Saten-san was acting quite a bit rude to the people by saying whatever came to his mind… but for the most part we were quite normal acting once we got up to the gatekeepers. The one we were talking to gave us a bit of difficulty up until the point where they figured out that we were your friends. They were saying they were doing it because of some ongoing case of some sort."

Saten also gestured at that moment, as if to point something out at that moment.

"I just remembered that idiot Mistuka was talking about something like a incident going on that made him attack me! Are those two things connected somehow?"

Kuroko chuckled again and shook his head, putting a hand up to his forehead as he did so.

"Ah… Of course the gatekeepers would be acting like that with what was going on… Mitsuka usually acts like that so I'm not even surprised, but I had hoped that my fellow Judgement agents would have at least acted better…"

Tomohisa looked at Kuroko with a slight bit of confusion in his expression as he did so.

"So… there is something going on right now? You never mentioned anything like that while we were working together this week."

Kuroko gestured up into the air apathetically.

"Well that's because the number of cases and the linking between them wasn't really determined until this morning. I wasn't going to be the person to make you worried about Tokiwodai students getting randomly stabbed."

It was at that moment that both Saten's and Tomohisa's eyes widened in surprise, causing the two of them to look at each other in shock. Tomohisa quickly turned his head back towards Kuroko in a clear bid to say something, but was cut off by the timely arrival of the smiling waitress, who had apparently had heard nothing of their conversation.

"Well now… Here you are with your salads. Today's specialty is a nice garden salad with spinach, lettuce and a few almonds tossed together in a vinaigrette. I'll be back to you with information on the main course and your drinks momentarily."

After saying that the waitress bowed to the table and began to walk off, Kuroko nodding his appreciation at her as she left. Once the waitress was gone, Kuroko began digging into salad with a hunger.

"Wow… The salad today is pretty good… The chefs must be really working hard today."

It was at that point that Saten interjected into the conversation, saying what he and Tomohisa were thinking at the time.

"Uhmmm… Forgive me for asking this… But aren't we skipping over something major in the favor of a salad? Isn't the fact that people from your school are getting stabbed at random something rather important?"

Kuroko looked at Saten with a slightly amused look as he continued to eat his salad.

"Oh… Is this the esper hating Saten taking concern about the espers of Tokiwodai? There is something that I didn't think was possible."

Saten might have been embarrassed if the subject of the conversation hadn't been so serious, so instead he gestured angrily at the Judgement agent.

"Back onto the fact that people are getting stabbed… Are you guy's certain that you are safe just walking around like you don't have a care in the world?"

Kuroko sighed in a slightly annoyed way as he finished up the last bite of his salad. Setting his fork down onto his empty plate, the Judgement agent leaned back in his chair with a frown on his face.

"Well… Most of the cases of stabbings have been on people who have been alone, and all the victims have been at the very most level 3. So seeing as we are together with you guys, and that I'm a level 4 and Aniki is a level 5, it is a longshot that we would be attacked. You would have to be an idiot with all the warnings given out to be attacked at this-...?"

It was at this moment, before Kuroko could finish speaking, that the door of the restaurant burst open, and two Tokiwodai students ran into the room, looks of terror on their faces. Looking around the room, the Tokiwodai students noticed Kuroko at once and ran over.

Breathing heavily at the table, the Tokiwodai students took a few moments before speaking breathlessly to Kuroko.

"Shirai-san… It's terrible! You have to come quickly! It's… It's terrible! Kongou-san… Kongou-san got stabbed!"

It was at that moment that Kuroko's expression changed from a look of mischievous happiness to a look of genuine concern. After a few seconds Kuroko clicked his tongue in an annoyed way as he began to mutter under his breath, so softly that Saten had to strain his ears to hear what was said.

"Of course that idiot of all people got stabbed… If he hadn't been so annoying earlier, then I might have let him come along and avoid this…"

With a sigh at the tail end of his muttering, Kuroko stood up from the table and looked at the two Tokiwodai students who had broken the news to him.

"So… Where in the world is Kongou-san? I hope you weren't careless enough to leave him by himself while he is bleeding out."

The two Tokiwodai students shivered slightly in fear from the look that Kuroko gave them, but they instantly began moving for the door to lead him.

"No, No… We would never do something so heartless! We left him with the people who found his and the ambulance was on their way, but he said he wanted to talk to you before he got wheeled off."

Makoto also stood up at this moment, looking as if he was going to follow Kuroko.

"Maybe I should come along with you Kuroko. The stabber might still be running around, and now since he was ballsy enough to attack another Level 4, you might get attacked. Let me go with you as-...!?"

Before Makoto could finish talking, Kuroko rolled his eyes and unceremoniously lifted the green mask off of his face, revealing a somewhat smug expression on the Level 5's face. Kuroko chuckled a bit as he continued walking without Makoto.

"How about you stay here Aniki, especially since we don't want you going off to cause an incident while one is already going on. Why don't you just sit here and wait for me to get back like a normal civilian for once?"

Makoto did not say anything back to Kuroko, but his face twisted into a grimace as he sat back down at the table, folding his arms as he watched Kuroko and his fellow Tokiwodai students walk out of the door.

Once those three were gone from the restaurant, the atmosphere that Saten could feel was reset somewhat, but he could distinctly feel the heaviness left over from the topic that had been discussed. Even now, fellow customers of the restaurant were whispering amongst themselves about what had just happened.

After dealing with this for a few moments, Saten sighed and stood up from the table and gestured toward the back of the restaurant.

"Uhmmm… If you guys don't mind, I'm going to go to the restroom real quick. If something else crazy were to happen, could you come and get me or at least leave a note if you leave?"

After saying that, Saten left the table and moved towards the restroom without even waiting for a response. After reaching the bathroom Saten sighed in a tired sort of way as he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone.

… _Really now… Why does stuff like this happen when I have to deal with these crazy esper's? I would much rather be somewhere else right now, looking for new stuff rather than-...!?_

It was at that moment, before Saten could finish his thought, that he felt a stabbing pain in his side that almost made him keel over in pain. Saten almost cursed in pain as he reached over to his side where the pain was at.

 _What in the world is up with this pain? I don't remember doing anything that would cause this, but then I almost got beat up by that idiot earlier, so maybe it's…_

Saten's thoughts stopped suddenly when he felt his side, and found that it was wet with some sort of sticky substance, and looking at his hand he found that his hand was covered in blood.

Saten's thought process cut off at that moment when he saw that substance on his hands, and he turned his head fully to look at his side, his entire body shivering in dread for what he might see there.

In his side, gleaming like a piece of polished obsidian, was a strange looking combat knife that had a trigger like mechanism on the handle. There was a hand holding the blade in his side, and when Saten followed this hand back to it's owner, he seemed to be able to find his voice, though it was so soft that even he could barely hear it.

"Y-You… Why have you…?"

The person holding the knife in Saten's side looked at the Level 0 for a few moments, before smiling sadistically and pulling the trigger mechanism on the handle.

The next moment, Saten simply blacked out in pain.


	6. A Certain Normal Day - Part 3

… _Well then… It seems that things are calming down for the day around here… So now the question is … What will I be doing with the rest of today?_

As he observed his surroundings, Juufuku Mito sighed and shook his head, completely distraught at the complete lack of people around him. On pretty much other given day, Mito would have been thrilled to be without constant stream of people around him, but today was different.

 _Those Tokiwodai bastards… They really must not be taking me seriously if I can get two of them in the space of an hour without a single hiccup! I would have guessed that there would at least been some sort of precautions taken… But with successes like this… then maybe…_

Before Mito could finish that thought he shook his and sighed, a slight grimace forming on his face.

"No, No, No… If I'm thinking that, then I must be greatly overestimating my abilities. I can't allow this power to go to my head… I need to practice far more before I finish this tour of vengeance… And, with saying that…"

Juufuku Mito again began to look around the immediate area for targets, but again he saw no one that fit his criteria within the zone. Seeing as it was earlier in the afternoon, people were still out and about going about their day, so the fact that no one had come by was a major flag for Mito.

 _Could I have gotten too greedy earlier going for that second stab? That might have been the one thing that finally gotten them to actually take me serious… Which means that I should probably get the hell out of here before someone wises up to what I'm doing… But if I leave now, I might miss out on a chance to gain a bit more experience._

Mito grimaced and continued to waffle between his decision for a few seconds, before he shrugged in a defeated manner, a sadistic grin slowly forming on his face.

"Well I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run. I do have two spots that are on the way to my exit route… So it wouldn't hurt to check on those before leaving."

With the sadistic smile still on his face, Juufuku Mito moved out of his mostly secluded spot and out to where the main throngs of people were walking about. Taking care not to get to close to the groups that were walking by, Mito advanced towards the first of the two spots that were on the way out.

The first spot, a small labyrinth of alleyways that intersected, was as empty as it usually was, so Mito only gave it the passing glance before walking by it towards the second spot.

The second spot, a small park that was inside of the High District, did have a Tokiwodai student in it, many for that matter, which made it a terrible spot to attempt to stab someone. Mito could only glare at the park as he walked by, his anger unnoticed by those it was focused on.

 _Well… this is a major disappointment… At the very least it doesn't seem as if the Tokiwodai students were particularly on edge… which might mean that it is safe to check one more spot before getting out of here for the day… Though it is probably the worst spot in the district…_

Walking towards the the third spot, a very rarely used alleyway, Juufuku kept a watchful eye out for anyone who was near, just in case something were to happen once he got there.

 _Can't be too careful when it comes to this… Once I get a chance to stab someone I can't really protect myself from being seen… If even one glimpse of me gets out, my plans for revenge will be ruined!_

Shaking his head, Mito finally arrived at his third spot, and almost instantly froze in place.

Standing in the most perfect position in Mito's zone of attack was a lone Tokiwodai student, who was simply looking around as if he were expecting something. This raised a minor warning bell to Mito, but after a brief check to prove that the Tokiwodai student couldn't see him, Mito slowly felt a smile coming on.

 _Well then… one must not look a perfect opportunity in the mouth… So… How about we get started?_

As he finished that thought, Mito reached down to his hidden holster and drew out his taser knife. As he slowly began to grin sadistically, he gave the blade a well practiced but casual toss, catching it and lighting it as silently as possible. After assuming a proper grip on it, Mito began to stroll up to the Tokiwodai student who still had no idea what was about to happen to him.

Once he was within striking distance of his target, it only took a moment for Mito to select a spot to stab, opting for the usual side of the stomach. After a moment of mental preparation, Mito tightened his grip on his blade and lunged forward.

It was almost the exact moment after Mito started his charge, the Tokiwodai student began to move. From his perspective Mito thought that it might have been coincidence at first, but as soon as he saw the other students arm move he knew that it was a deliberate move. Before he could even react to what was going on, the other student knocked Mito's charge off course by smacking aside the hand holding the knife, following that up by grabbing onto that same hand.

This display of speed and skill made Mito's eyes widen in a mixture of awe and terror, his brain struggling to even form a response to what had just happened.

"Wha-Wha-Wha- What in the world… Who… How...?!"

* * *

"... Well now…. That was quite an… interesting experience."

Kuroko could not help but feel a bead of sweat run down his neck as the brief moment of worry finished its course through his body. Now that he could clearly see his assailant, he mentally breathed a sigh of relief, before beginning to mutter under his breath.

"It looks like you were a hundred percent correct again Tomohisa, though that doesn't make me particularly happy. How you were able to deduce the answer from so little evidence is something that will never not surprise me."

On the other end of Kuroko's hidden mic, back in the Judgement offices, Tomohisa responded to Kuroko in a quick manner that spared not a single important detail.

"There was plenty of evidence pointing out that the person in front of you was the stabber, it was just so convoluted by contradictory conclusions that it seemed like there wasn't. I simply connected all the dots formed by the evidence and not others conclusions."

After hearing that response Kuroko could only sigh in a defeated manner.

"Yet another thing that I can't help but be surprised about every time is how cold you can be when supervising… Well anyway… I guess I should get along with detaining this guy."

With that Kuroko finally focused on the face of the serial stabber, who had spent this entire time trying to come up with coherent sentences. Once the Judgement agent locked eyes with his target, the stabber seemed to finally be able to speak again.

"How… How in the world were you able to do that?! It should have been completely impossible for you to detect me… yet you moved as if you knew exactly where I was! What… What in the world is going on?!"

Kuroko looked at the stabber as a slight smirk began to form on his face, and then began to speak up in a tone that the stabber could hear.

"You're… Juufuku Mito if I am to presume? I must say... It was a huge pain in the ass to track you down, so I actually kind of want to thank you for showing up show I could capture you."

Mito's mouth suddenly dropped open in shock as his eyes widened, and he ever so slightly began to struggle against Kuroko's grip on his arm.

"Uhmmm…. May I ask how in the world you know my name? I don't really remember doing anything of note that would spread my name around… And what in the world did you say about cap-...!?"

It was at this moment that Mito's eyes trailed off of Kuroko's, looking down in a clear sense of fear. It was at that moment that the stabber saw the green and white armband on Kuroko's arm, the all too common sign of Judgement.

Upon seeing that, Mito's gaze flicked instantly back up to Kuroko's, the slight glint of fear now clearly taking hold of the boy, causing the stabber to sweat in a cold fear. The little amount of struggling that he had been doing now developed into a clear effort to break free of the grip that was holding him.

Kuroko could not help but confidently smile at Mito, tightening his grasp on the criminal's arm to say that he wasn't letting go anytime soon.

"Now, Now Mito-san… How about you calm down for a second here? I'm not here to do anything bad to you, I'm actually am trying to help you out."

The look of fear that Mito directed at Kuroko clearly stated that the stabber did not believe a word of what the Judgement officer was saying, but since he clearly wasn't going anywhere it didn't bother Kuroko in the slightest.

"Look, I know that I'm here to detain you due to the fact that you are now the prime suspect in the stabbings that have been going on around the High District, but that doesn't mean that I'm here to hurt you. All you have to do is surrender quietly, and I'll have you packed up into an Anti-Skill holding cell within the hour with not even a scratch on your pretty face."

Kuroko attempted to smile calmly towards Mito, while at the same time continuing to maintain his vice like grip on the criminal. The criminal, in contrast, had to force himself to try and keep his cool, returning Kuroko's smile with a wary one of his own.

"N-Now hold on their mister Judgement agent. I'm not going to talk down your investigative skill here, but… H-How it the world could you say that I'm connected with that case at all? What sort of evidence do you have-...!?"

Before Mito could finish that question, Kuroko cut him off by bending his arm in a way that would inflict pain on his detainee without causing any lasting harm. The second after he decided to do that, Mito's face twisted into a look of pure agony.

Upon seeing that the criminal was withering in agony, Kuroko smiled over at Mito and reset the criminal's arm to a non painful position.

"If you really want to know what evidence we have against you, then you would do best to come with me back to that Anti-Skill holding cell. Though I would say that you are holding one of the biggest pieces of evidence in the form of that knife. Oh I'm sure that if we were to run that knife by Anti-Skill's forensics office, what sort of things would we find?"

Kuroko saw Mito squirm a little bit underneath his watchful glare, the stabber somehow managing to summon up the courage to look up at the Judgement agent defiantly.

"H-How in the world could you even begin to think that you could use the knife against me? I… I just found this knife! Yeah… I just found it not to long ago and-...!?"

Kuroko smiled at Mito with an expression that clearly said what he would do if the criminal finished his sentence. Mito shivered in fear at the expression on the Judgement officer's face, going silent almost immediately.

"Now then… While it is true that relying solely on the knife alone would mean relying on circumstantial evidence, but if you think about it, I wouldn't have bothered to hunt you down if I was relying that kind of evidence, would I?"

Mito looked down at the ground with a completely dejected look on his face, clearly showing that any morale he had previously had was now broken. After a few moments of silence, the criminal sighed and began to speak up with an expectant tone.

"Uhmmm… I am getting the feeling that this is mostly wishful thinking… But… you wouldn't happen to be willing to let me go… Would you?"

Kuroko put on a merciless grin as he looked down at his detainee, a menacing aura slowly pooling around him as he struggled against his rage.

"Listen… Juufuku-san… If you would allow me to be brutally honest… the only reason I'm not really being rough with you is because that I want to see you go to court and get what's really coming to you. So please… Don't try and test me."

Mito did not turn his head up to look at Kuroko, but the Judgement agent could tell that his detainee most likely had the most resigned look on his face at the moment. He had detained numerous criminals before, and at this point they would usually resign themselves to their fate rather than fight.

At least, that is what Kuroko thought before Mito began chuckling to himself in a rather sinister way.

"Well… Sorry to spoil your parade Judgement officer-san… but you're going to have to wait to drag me in front of a court."

The next moment, there was a small explosion at Kuroko's feet, and a huge cloud of smoke instantly filled his vision. Before he could even register what was going on with that, he felt Mito moving the hand holding the knife, throwing all of his weight behind in an attempt to stab Kuroko.

In a move that was born from raw survival instinct rather than any form of thought, Kuroko let go of the arm that was holding the knife, and the moment before he was to be stabbed, teleported a short distance away. Arriving to his spot of relative safety, Kuroko could not help but curse himself as his entire body went tense, his eyes looking around for any sort of sign of an attack.

Where he had been standing a few moments before was now completely covered in white billowing smoke that was quickly dissipating, yet he did not see any unusual movements in the cloud that would give him cause to think that an attack was coming.

After a few seconds of looking around the area, Kuroko could not help but curse again, and he began to speak out to Tomohisa.

"Tomohisa! I think our target has bolted… Where in the hell did he go?!"

* * *

"God Damnit… Here I had thought that most of the Judgement agents in this city were lazy and wouldn't bother getting involved in something if they didn't have to. Yet this one seems to want to chase after me all day… And he seems to be able to chase me, which is the the most concerning point of this entire problem."

Juufuku Mito let out a sigh that was a mixture of relief and exhaustion as he leaned against a wall, trying to calm his racing heart.

Mito had been on the run from the Judgement agent for the better part of the day, so long that it was the sun which had been at it's peak was now starting to slowly set, turning the sky orange. How the Judgement agent had been able to keep up with Mito for so long, considering the fact that Mito had his power and his knowledge of the district at his disposal.

… _I know that I had to step out into the view of cameras several times during our chase… but I also used some of my spots to try and confuse anyone who was looking out for me… So if it were just that then I should have lost him after the smoke bomb…_

Three times during the chase Mito had thought that he had truly gotten away from the Judgement officer, only to be faced with a close call that he had to escape from using his power. He had used his power so much that he could already feel the effects of overexertion slowing making themselves known, in the form of a slight headache and shortness of breath that would not go away.

"... If that guy decided to jump down on me right now… I really don't think that I will be able to escape with my power anymore…"

After saying that aloud, Mito shook his head in almost disgust before readjusting himself, trying his best to catch his breath.

 _Now then… Since I have the chance to get the hell out of here, I might as well take it! I don't feel like going to jail today… And if I play my cards right I won't be taken in at all._

Nodding to himself, Mito once again began moving through the backstreets of the District, taking even more care than usual to not be spotted or to really use his powers as a way to move around.

After a few minutes of this, Mito finally arrived near to yet another one of his spots where he could strike someone, and when he drew near, the stabber had to freeze in place when he saw what was there.

Standing directly in the perfect spot for an attack, their eyes closed to the outside world, was a Tokiwodai student, arms crossed in an expression of annoyance.

… _Well what are the chances that this a trap, considering that I've already fell for the same thing once already!_

Shaking his head, Mito began to move towards the path towards his exit from the district. He barely got two steps forward before he stopped and turned around to look at the other student, his blood already boiling.

 _God damn Tokiwodai brat… If I didn't have to see him I could just leave without any sort of problem… Fuck it! Let's just stab this guy real quick and then be on my merry way._

With a grimace on his face, Juufuku activated his power as he drew his knife from his holster and began to charge directly at the Tokiwodai student.

When Juufuku was 3 meters away from the rich student, Jufuku suddenly felt some sort of grit floating in the air that he could not see. The curiosity about the substance caused Juufuku to slow down for a second, which was the second that caused him to fail.

The Tokiwodai student, whose eyes had been glued shut the entire time, suddenly burst open and he turned to look directly at Juufuku. The moment that happened, with an emotionless face, the Tokiwodai student made a fist and slammed it into Juufuku's unsuspecting face, sending the stabber slamming to the ground, going unconscious instantly.

* * *

"... Aniki… I'd like to start off with saying that I am grateful so to dispel any other thoughts from you head… But could you please recite for me what I told you back at the Judgement office?"

As he said this, Kuroko could not help but pinch the bridge of his nose to try and contain the frustration that he felt at that moment.

In front of him was a scene that seemed to drain all of his energy from him, making him feel that he should just leave if it wasn't for his job to control the situation.

Misaka Makoto, one of the 7 strongest espers in the city, was sitting on top of the bound, unmoving form of Juufuku Mito, the person who the Judgement agent had been trying to track down for the better part of the day.

The Level 5 looked down at the unconscious form of Juufuku Mito briefly before looking back at Kuroko with an annoyed look on his face, clicking his tongue at his friend.

"Oh I don't really remember what it was you were telling me back there, seeing as I was focusing hard on trying to get information on this piece of shit here. Of course because of you making that harder for me, I had to focus that much harder."

Kuroko looked at Makoto with a smiling expression that seemed to perfectly convey his annoyance with the Level 5.

"Well… Since you weren't paying attention to me then, allow me to reinform you then. I told you in a way that could not be confused, that I didn't want you, a civilian, to interfere with my investigation!"

Makoto leaned back with an almost smug look on his face, waving a dismissive hand over at Kuroko.

"Well it seems that I handled the situation quite handily, much better than you Judgement agents in any case. After all, it only took me one attempt to capture him."

Kuroko angrily grimaced over at Makoto, gesturing at the criminal that the Level 5 was using as a seat cushion.

"Oh I am so very happy that you beat the shit out of the person I had to detain, especially since that he could probably use it as a way to get out of trouble if he wanted to. Do you not even think of this shit before-..."

" **Now, Now Shirai-san, there isn't really any reason to be mad at this point is there?"**

Kuroko stopped talking as a buzzing sound began to become audible, and a Judgement branded drone flew down to level a camera at Kuroko. The judgement agent began to scratch his head, still grimacing at Makoto.

"Tomohisa, if I let this guy keep getting away with this stuff, there is no telling what he will do next! For gods sake, the only reason he could have possibly figured out how to do this was if he broke into the Judgement network… again!"

Makoto shrugged at the drone and Kuroko, an unapologetic expression on his face.

"It's not my fault that I had to resort to hacking into your network because you refused to give me the information I needed. And if you really wanted me to not hack into your network then you would have put up some sort of blocker for me."

Kuroko's face slowly began to go red in rage, and he opened his mouth to say something about how it was impossible to defend against someone who used electricity, but the drone flew in between the two.

" **Come on now Shirai-san! We do not have the time for this. Anti-skill is on their way, so we should at least try to make it seem like we did this properly."**

Kuroko angrily glared at the hovering drone, before sighing and gesturing at Makoto to stand up and stop using the criminal as a cushion.

"You heard him Aniki, so could you please get off of the prisoner so that we could at least make him presentable? I would really not like being yelled at by my superiors for fucking up my job."

Makoto looked over at Kuroko with a somewhat pitying look, before sighing and standing up, walking a short distance away to lean against a wall. He then began to gesture for Kuroko to approach the criminal.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Kuroko walked up to the unconscious prisoner and put him into a sitting position. Kuroko then began to tap the criminal on his cheek in an effort to wake him up, but after several seconds of attempts the criminal did not wake up.

Kuroko turned to look at Makoto with an annoyed look, which was returned by one of almost equal annoyance.

"Aniki… What the hell did you do to him? If you really only just punched him like you said you did, he should at the very least be squirming right now."

Makoto chuckled in an almost sadistic way before gesturing over at the criminal again.

"Well… I might have thrown a little bit of extra on that punch… A little bit of electricity in order to mess up his nervous system, making him unable to wake up for quite a bit."

Kuroko placed his head in his hands so to try and keep his cool, only for his rage to take control of him.

"Aniki! Do you not realize how stupid you are and how complicated this makes things for me!? We need him awake so that we can interrogate him, and you basically knock him out for a extended period of time!? Are you fucking kidding me!"

Makoto looked at Kuroko with a rage filled glare, clicking his tongue at the Judgement agent.

"What are you getting so angry with me? I only went as far as this idiot deserved, considering that he did all of this shit just because one girl decided to reject him and date a Tokiwodai student."

Kuroko again grimaced at Makoto, and began to open and close his mouth in a rage before sighing and gesturing for the Level 5 to leave.

"Aniki… Could you just get the hell out of here? You have no other reason to be here at all except to cause me problems… So could you please just leave?"

Makoto looked at Kuroko with an annoyed glare, but he then shrugged and disappeared into the district, well out of the view of Kuroko. After the Level 5 disappeared, the drone turned the camera to focus on the Judgement agent.

" **W-Well… I guess I should bring the drone back so we can store it… Hope nothing real bad will happen because of Misaka-san… Hopefully…"**

With that the drone flew off into the air, leaving Kuroko alone, waiting for Anti-Skill to arrive. After a few moments, Kuroko looked up to the sky with an angry grimace on his face.

"Fuck this day…"


	7. A Certain Horrible Day - Part 1

"... Like I said, the plan for all members of the group paying 100000 yen a week for R&D for project has been proven ineffective. The group has voted to triple the budget in order to improve results, however…"

"... Like I said, we can't be seen going to that restaurant in the commercial district anymore. So many level 2 and lower espers are going there now that it's impossible for us to go there. We should stick to…"

"... Really now? You decided to take on a date like that, and you're wondering why she is angry with you? You're a member of Tokiwodai, and you decide to not throw around money for her? Now to your senpai as I go over…"

… _Well then… It's safe to say that this day has become completely and totally fucked…_

Makoto grimaced slightly as he thought this to himself, flipping to the next page of his book with a completely disinterested motion. This was not due to the fact that he disliked the contents of the book, but rather the overall condition that he was reading the book in.

The level 5 esper found himself inside of the canteen of his dorms, which was currently packed to the brim with his fellow students as it was lunch time on a weekend. All of them were trying to talk over each other, most likely because they thought their conversation was more important than any other, which was completely distracting Makoto from his attempt to read his book.

Makoto began to slowly grimace as he lost his place in his book for the third time in the past 60 seconds, due to one of his fellow classmates recalling to his fellows some boring spectacle that he had observed during the week.

… _Really now… If I could just go out somewhere so that I didn't have to be around these guys… but then I would just end up pissing off Kuroko… Which would then lead to me making more people angry._

Shaking his head in an apathetic manner, Makoto yet again started reading from the top of the page, his care for the book growing weaker as he did so.

"Ah… Misaka-sama!"

Makoto felt his blood rush to his head in rage, as he again lost his place in his book. Looking up from his book, he was completely ready to dispense anger upon the person addressing him.

Standing to the side of Makoto's table, dressed in an outfit that looked like a cross between a waiter's uniform and a traditional french butler's, was a boy with short black hair who was about a year Makoto's younger. The boy was wearing the smile of a person who was a professional in the service industry, one that seemed effortless as an expression.

"I can see that you're enjoying a bit of light reading this afternoon Misaka-sama, but I would recommend that you get something eat since it is lunch. It is bad for you to forgo eating something just because you don't feel hungry."

With a sigh, Makoto felt his anger subside into a feeling more akin to general annoyance, and he snapped his book closed, not even bothering to mark what page he had been struggling to read from.

"Seba… I'm sorry, but I am just not feeling like eating right now. I was just about to leave to head back to my room right now… Maybe I'll get a start on some of the homework that we got this week…"

Seba looked at Makoto with a concerned look, before gesturing towards the kitchens in a sense of urgency.

"Now… I'm not one to tell you that you are doing something wrong, but I do also know how terrible it is when you espers don't eat anything. Might I at least offer you something to drink, maybe a cup of tea or perhaps a cup of coffee?"

Makoto opened his mouth, fully ready to argue as to why he didn't feel like eating anything at that moment, when his stomach let out a deep rumbling growl that was clearly audible to the Level 5 and the butler.

The butler looked at Makoto, and gave him the same professional smile as before, and again gestured towards the kitchens.

"Well then Makoto-sama… I'll get you that drink I mentioned before, so would you like a lunch menu to go along with that?"

Makoto put a hand over his face as a unsuccessful way to hide his embarrassment, and with his other hand gestured for Seba to go and prepare everything.

The butler took a step back from the table, bowing slightly as he did so, before walking away towards the kitchens. Before Makoto could do anything to recover his composure, Seba was back, carrying a silver tray which held a silvery coffee pot, a mug that was made of the finest china, a small covered cup of milk, along with a container of sugar. Underneath the butler's arm was the lunch menu for the day, which he had no problem holding while he was setting down the tray.

Seba took the menu out from under his arm and set it down in front of Makoto, before gesturing towards the tray.

"As I recall Misaka-sama, you like your coffee with some milk and three sugars correct? Do you wish for that today, or do you perhaps want to switch it up?"

The level 5 didn't even take a moment to consider.

"Same as always, Seba. Same as always."

The butler instantly got to work after he had received direction from Makoto, picking up the coffee cup and pouring the black liquid into it up to about the ¾ mark. As he did this he began to make small talk with Makoto.

"So Misaka-sama, what do you plan to do with the rest of the day? You've been hanging around the dorms all morning, so I assume that you have something exciting planned for this beautiful day?"

Makoto felt his annoyance begin to flare up into anger again, but he managed to contain himself as he sighed towards Seba.

"Well… I might have had some plans for today, but… I was told politely by the Dorm manager that it would be great if I didn't go out today. He said that he had received some complaints from the upper management of the city, the kind which he can't just ignore."

Seba had an expression on that clearly showed that he sympathized with Makoto, but that did not stop him from preparing the coffee. He began pouring the milk into the mug, causing the black liquid into a nice brown color, and filling the mug.

"... Is it safe to say that the rumor where you and Shiri-sama had gotten into a little bit of a fight is true? Because it would seem to me that he would have a hand in having the dorm manager doing anything."

Makoto looked up at Seba with a clearly annoyed look, almost on the verge of anger.

"Now hold on! To say that me and Kuroko had a fight is a huge overstatement! The fact of the matter is that we simply had a disagreement as to how we handled things, and that resulted in a… slightly heated debate… Though when you say that he might have a hand in this… I have no real reason to counter that."

Seba nodded at Makoto in an understanding way, still continuing to fix the Level 5's coffee. He took the three cubes of sugar and placed them in the liquid, stirring vigorously after each one went in. After the third sugar, the butler set the cup down onto the table before Makoto, taking a step back and bowing after he did so.

"Well… I'm sure that you and Shirai-sama will be able to get over your little scuffle as you have many other times. In any case, will you be getting anything for lunch today, or will this be all?"

Makoto tiredly picked up the coffee cup and gave it an appreciative smell before waving a hand over at the butler.

"Whatever the chef recommends for today, just give it to me in a half portion. Other than that, I'll be fine and dandy."

Seba nodded appreciatively toward Makoto, taking up everything that Makoto didn't need to enjoy his meal. After that, he bowed yet again towards Makoto.

"Very well then Ma- Misaka-sama. I'll be right back with that."

The coffee that Makoto was about to take a sip from stopped just on the edge of drinking the liquid, and the level 5 pulled the mug away from his mouth to stare coldly at the back of the retreating Seba's head.

"Could you actually hold up for a moment Seba? I actually have a very serious question for you if you don't mind me asking."

The very neutral wording of Makoto's request was betrayed by the extremely cold tone of the Level 5. Seba stopped in his tracks and slowly, carefully began to turn to face Misaka, a typical smile on his face.

"Yes Misaka-sama? What would you need me fore? Do you actually want to put an actual order in for the chef, or-..."

Misaka gave Seba a look that caused the butler to go silent when he saw it. The level 5 began to observe the butler by staring at the other boy, who obviously began to sweat slightly in fear. After a moment, the butler began to speak again.

"Uhmmm… Misaka-sama… Is there anything-..."

Before the butler could even finish talking, Makoto let out a loud and audible sigh to cut the other boy off. He then began to gesture at Seba with a gesture that was half demanding, half convincing.

"Okay then, Orimura, you've had your fun… Now how about you drop your act now and get out of Seba's body?"

The butler, now confronted by this accusation, looked over at Makoto with a look of pure and utter confusion. After a moment, he regained his composure and had a smile back on his face.

"Misaka-sama… Are you absolutely certain that you are feeling alright? I must admit… That is a very weird accusation to make."

Makoto set the coffee cup down fully, using his free hand to tap the side of his head in an annoyed manner. After a moment he grimaced over at Seba as an anger mark began to form on his forehead.

"Orimura… I would very much like to avoid causing any damage to Seba's body or the canteen in general… So could you please give up this pitiful scene before I lose the last bit of patience I have?"

All of the sound that had been going on in the canteen that had been distracting Makoto while he had been reading had now stopped, turning a room full of middle school aged boys so silent that one could hear the slight rustling of clothes as people turned to look at the situation.

Seba looked at Makoto with a slightly dumb expression on his face for a few moments, as if he didn't actually know what was going on. When the Level 5's expression did not change after a few moments, the butler let out a sigh and shook his head in a disappointed fashion.

After he did that, the butler looked up at Makoto, a sinister looking expression stretched across his face, one that looked completely unnatural on the boy.

"Really now Mako-chan… All it took was one little mistake for you to figure out that I was in here? After all the work I did to study this guy in order to perfectly emulate his every mannerism… Tell me… Are you always so paranoid, or are you simply extremely suspicious today?"

Makoto, who had already been grimacing at the boy, deepened his grimace once the butler took on this new style of speaking.

"Well if you were carefully studying Seba, then you would have noticed that he would never had called me or anyone else by their given name. Knowing that fact, and knowing that you and your bullshit power exist in this world, it wasn't hard for me to put two and two together to make four. And since we're on the track of asking each other questions… What the hell did you put in my coffee?"

The butler sighed and sat down across the table from Makoto, casually putting his feet up on the table without a care for the unhygienic nature of the gesture.

"Oh why must you assume that I had any ill will in serving you a mug of coffee? Don't you even think that I would want to show you a good gesture once in awhile?"

Makoto looked at the butler without even a glint of acceptance in his eyes.

"If you really wanted to show me a good gesture, then you would kindly go and die in a ditch somewhere. I'm asking you again, what the hell did you put in my coffee?"

Seba looked at Makoto with an almost pitiable look before sighing and nodding his head.

"It was a tiny amount of laxative, just enough to make you think that it was the coffee that was causing you to shit uncontrollably. A genius plan if I do say so myself."

Makoto scowled at Seba as he looked at the coffee cup with renewed disgust, pushing it away from himself very quickly.

"Hmmm…. That is the sort of stupid plan someone like you would come up with… Well now that I know that, how about you get the hell out of Seba's body? I don't like the fact that you are using his mouth to say these things."

Seba looked at Makoto with a disgusted look on his face, clicking his tongue in an annoyed fashion.

"Mako-chan… Could you please have even an iota of sympathy for me in this situation? You know how hard it is for me to enter and then exit a person on a moment's notice, so it's-...!?"

Out of nowhere, seemingly unprovoked, Makoto raised his hand up and leveled it with with the center of Seba's mass. Before the butler could even react to this, the sound of arcing electricity could be heard throughout the canteen, as a blueish spark of lightning flew from the tips of Makoto's fingers to strike the helpless butler.

This action elicited a number of yelps and shouts from around the canteen, causing several of Makoto's fellow students to stand up to look over at what was happening, or run off in a fearful hurry.

As for the butler, as the wave of electricity flowed through his body, he fell out of his chair and collapsed with a thud to the ground. His body twitched involuntarily and one could see his eyes rolling in his sockets, though it did not seem to be an overly painful experience for the boy. Almost as instantly as it had begun, the electric flow ended, causing the boy's body to go limp as he slowly began to regain control of it.

After a moment, the butler began to sit up, placing a hand on his head in an attempt to calm the obviously throbbing headache he had.

"Ah… What in the world… Where am I…?"

Seba looked around the canteen with an almost distracted expression on his face, before looking up at Makoto, who was busy standing up from the table to look down at the butler, his hand still pulsing with bluish white electricity.

Almost immediately the butler hopped back to his feet, bowing low so to not look Makoto directly in the eye, a bead of sweat forming on his brow. Despite everything that must be racing through his head at that moment, he kept the same professional smile on his face.

"Ma-Ma-Makoto-sama! I-I'm so sorry for whatever it was that just happened, and will endeavour to prevent it from happening again in the future… So just for clarification… could you inform me of what it was I did to make you angry?"

Makoto did not initially respond to the butler, instead walking out so that the table was no longer between the two of them. After that, he looked down at the back of the butler's head with a somewhat neutral expression on his face.

"You did not do anything that would have offended me Seba, but you were going to tell me the last thing that you remember was. Could you please tell me truthfully so that I won't be wasting my time?"

The single bead of sweat that had been on Seba's forehead now blossomed into several as he began raking his mind for the information. After a moment, the butler looked up at the level 5 with a worried smile on his face.

"Uhm… I don't really know how reliable it is… but the last thing I seem to remember is that I had been asked to deliver some water to the study area, and then… nothing."

Without even saying anything, Makoto walked away from the conversation and out of the canteen. He took the most direct route he could to the study area of the dorms, and he was generally avoided by the rest of his dormmates, those that he did meet running off almost instantly when they saw him.

… _Well… It seems that word of what is about to happen is making its way through the dorm. That should hopefully reduce the amount of people caught in the crossfire._

Within a minute, Makoto was entering through the doors of the study area of the dorm, which actually looked like a library with numerous cubicles for students to study in peace.

That peace had already been disrupted by the time that Makoto had arrived on the scene, with every other student in the library looking over at on cubicle in particular, where another student was lying on the ground face up.

That student was a rather plain, normal looking black haired boy, one that looked like a stereotypical male student. That boy was rubbing his head in pain as he lay on the floor, the chair that he had fallen out of lying at his side.

The boy managed to catch sight of Makoto from his spot on the ground, while he was taking all the attention of the room off of the Level 5. Upon seeing the annoyed looking boy, the black haired boy cockly grinned up at Makoto.

"Ah… Mako-chan… It really didn't take you that long to find out where I was at, did it? Perhaps I should have taken better care in hiding that information."

Once he had been pointed out, Makoto saw that every eye in the room turned towards him with apprehension. Once the crowd realized that it was indeed Makoto standing there, they as one backed up from the scene, some ducking out of the entryway of the library in order to get away.

Once the scene had gotten less crowded, Makoto sighed and shook his head in annoyance as he looked down at the other level 5 that belonged to Tokiwodai. Orimura Ichika, the Grandmaster.

"Could you kindly explain to me what the hell is going on Orimura? Correct me if I'm wrong… But I thought the last time we fought we came to an agreement to leave each other the hell alone so as not to cause problems. Care to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to break that agreement?"

While Makoto was practically steaming at the ears, Ichika picked himself up off of the ground, dusting himself off and fixing his attire as he did so. Once he had put himself back together, Ichika smiled over at Makoto.

"Really now… Do you really want to start a fight the instant we meet Mako-chan? You won't even try and say hello after we haven't seen each other in… about two months now? Why don't we sit down and get re-...?!"

Before Ichika could finish talking, a spark of blueish white electricity flew past the Level 5's head, singing a bit of black hair as it did so. Across from him, Makoto was holding his still sparking hand up towards Ichika with a rage filled expression on his face.

Ichika took the hint with a sigh before he began his explanation.

"Fine, if you really wish to just get into a fight, I see no reason not to oblige you… And on the point of that agreement we made, this was brought on because you and Kuroko-san were the ones who broke it first. You poked your noses into a little game I was running and went and ruined it for me, so I feel that I had sufficient ground to get back at you."

Makoto gave Ichika a blank stare in response to the explanation, his confusion obvious on his face.

"I'm sorry… But what the hell are you talking about? I haven't messed with you in two whole months, so tell me how in the world I messed with your… 'game'?"

Ichika leveled an accusatory finger at Makoto, a semi-serious pout on his face as he did so.

"I'll tell you how you messed up my glorious little game! You and Kuroko-san just had to go and invite some of your friends to the high district so that they got stabbed by Juufuku-san, causing you two to have to intervene! And because of you intervening, Juufuku is now in Anti-Skill custody, which has put a stop to all my plans for him!"

Makoto continued to look at Ichika with a blank stare for a few moments more, before an expression of revelation dawned on his face.

"You… Are you saying that you were responsible for that whole situation? You know… where several of our classmates got stabbed?"

Ichika instantly nodded at Makoto, his false annoyance evident in the gesture.

"And you should know how hard of a situation it was to orchestrate. At first it was a simple plan, humiliating his childhood friend for her decision to try and dump me. Me of all people Mako-chan! So I blackmailed her with some pictures I had taken while she was under the influence of my power, and told her to turn down the person she had been planning to dump me for."

Makoto looked at Ichika with a neutral expression, nodding with an understanding way.

"And that led to Juufuku-san stabbing members of Tokiwodai over being dumped by his friend… Am I correct to assume that you had a hand in that as well?"

Ichika nodded at Makoto, a smile of interest on his face as he continued his explanation.

"Of course I did! Do you think that I would let this unexpected development go so easily? I had thought that he would simply lie down and accept his fate, but I never would have believed him to go after and successfully stab Tokiwodai students in revenge. I was so worried that his anger would be sated that I had to send several fellow students to get stabbed to keep him interested."

There was a slight whisper going through the crowd after Ichika said that, though the general mood was one of conformation rather than genuine surprise. Makoto paid no heed to the crowd and sighed at Ichika, his shallow patience at its end.

"So…. You fully admit that the entire situation was your fault… And even that you intentionally made it worse by sending some of your own to be stabbed…"

Ichika chuckled at Makoto, spreading his hands across in a grandiose, and cocky gesture.

"Of course I do Mako-chan! Why in the world would I even try to hide my deeds when you would simply hate me for existing anyway. By the by-...!"

Ichika stopped talking and in that same instant took a step to the side, just as a spear of electricity arched through the air where he had been standing. The spear traveled across the room and collided with a wall, leaving a black scorch mark on the surface.

Ichika did not look behind himself to see the scorch mark, and instead kept his gaze on Makoto, who had raised his hand up to let off that lance of electricity. The Ichika grinned over at Makoto, his eyes taking on a sadistic glint.

"Should I assume by you doing this… that our agreement of non-interference is up?"

Makoto shot Ichika a glare that was one of calm fury, electricity slowly arching off his body a visible show of his rage. The level 5 lifted his hand up as a particularly large arch of bluish white electricity came off of his skin.

"I don't know why I decided to make such an agreement with a piece of filth like you… Now that you remind me of what you truly are…"

Ichika took a step back from the conversation, not out of fear of Makoto, but rather as if he was preparing for something. He cockly smiled at Makoto as he crossed his arms.

"Well… I guess I could take that as a yes… But Makoto… I should remind you-..."

Makoto was not paying attention to Ichika, and instead was winding up to toss another spear of electricity. He tossed the blueish white bolt with pinpoint accuracy towards the center of Ichika's mass.

Ichika did not seem at all concerned about the electric bolt flying his way, instead closing his eyes in the face of his approaching pain.

"That I am not going to be the one to fight you."

At that moment, one of the bystander students who had been watching the entire scene jumped into the space between Ichika and the bolt of electricity, taking the full brunt of the attack. The student collapsed to the ground without a single comment, sparking not a single sound from the crowd.

Makoto looked up from his throw with a grimace on his face, a glint of conformation in his eyes as he looked over at Ichika, whose eyes were closed at that moment.

"You just had to go and use your power rather than take the attack like a normal person… Didn't you?"

Makoto received no response from Ichika, whose deep rhythmic breathing gave off the feeling that the other Level 5 was asleep. However, as if in response to Makoto's question, all the onlookers turned as one to look at Makoto, a glazed over look to their eyes. The crowd began to surround Makoto, cutting off his access to the door and, more importantly, Ichika.

Makoto let out a sigh of annoyance as he looked at the crowd that now surrounded him, and he began to spark off electricity in a threatening manner.

"You know that I have no qualms about shocking people that are under your power. Once I hit someone with even a tiny bit of electricity, your hold over them breaks. Do you really want to try this shit?"

The Level 5 received no response from Ichika, but from the controlled crowd he saw the very hints of smiles begin to form on their faces.

Makoto let out a sigh, and began to observe the crowd, trying his best to gauge who he had to attack first to even the odds. After carefully choosing his first target, Makoto began the motion to toss another lance of electricity.

Before he could complete the motion, a bright, stunning flash of light went off in the exact middle of the crowd, blinding them and Makoto in a single burst.

Makoto stumbled backwards in a daze, completely oblivious to what was going on due to him being blind. He desperately began to blink his eyes in order to regain his vision, completely failing at it.

 _What in the hell is going on?! This couldn't have been that bastards work, so who-...?!_

Before he could finish his thought, a blow hit Makoto cleanly and sharply in the back of his head, instantly knocking the Level 5 out.


	8. A Certain Horrible Day - Part 2

… _Ow… Ow… Ow… Ow… God damn it….! Why in the world did that bitch of a dorm mother have to practically break my arm off to stop me from fighting?! That woman already threw a fucking stun grenade into a room, you would think that would be enough for me and that dumbass Ichika, but no…_

With a sigh and a loud crack in his arm, Makoto finished stretching his arm as he was walking down the street, a scowl on his face as he was remembering the events of an hour ago.

An hour ago, when Makoto had been about to beat the shit out of Ichika, the fight had been suddenly interrupted by a stun grenade from an unknown source. This stun grenade was followed promptly followed by a series of attacks that had left him sore all over his body and knocked out for a bit of time.

When Makoto had awoken, he was quickly informed by the dorm mother, who had him in a hold that was essentially a centimeter or two away from ripping his arm off, that the dorm rules remained unchanged, and that fighting was not permitted on the premises. She followed this up by stating that she had figured out that Ichika was the one that had initiated the situation, so she was going to be lenient towards Makoto due to this, but that he had to leave the dorm in order for the tension to die down.

Thus, due to the fact that the tension of the dorm had to be reduced, Makoto was walking down the street, now completely at a loss as to what to do with the rest of his day, seeing as there was maybe seven or eight hours left in the day.

… _Well then… what would be the best way to spend this time that I have suddenly found myself with... ? Well… The best way that I could think of would be to go and try and win that limited edition Silver Servant Guardian mask from the arcade. There is only a limited run of this mask and it would be a great addition to my collection, also it would be good to get it out of the hands of those elementary schoolers who wouldn't properly appreciate it._

With those thoughts in his mind, Makoto started to grin as he turned his walk towards his favorite arcade, a happy skip to his gait at the thought of winning the mask for himself.

As he was travelling through the city on his way to the arcade, he suddenly noticed something while he was passing through one of the most crowded areas of the city.

Off to one side were a group of three girls, dressed in the uniform of one of the lower tier high schools of Academy City, and each one wearing a pissed off expression towards the person they were surrounding, berating their target with a rage born of someone who had been wronged.

"... Well! What the hell do you have to say for yourself you fucking pervert! Have you gone silent because you got fucking caught?!"

"Of course he has! These little middle school perverts don't even try to have an ounce of respect!"

"It's all because esper's acting all better than their sempai. I bet this little rat bastard has some little Level 1 power that give him a little sense of superiority over us level 0's."

At this point, as Makoto was walking by the scene, which had garnered the attention of several passersby, the Level 5 noticed something that made him grimace in anger.

Standing in the center of the group of three high school girls, clutching his phone, was the nervously grinning form of Saten, who was looking between the three girls in an attempt to find a person he could persuade.

"... As I was saying ladies… This is one great big misunderstanding. Now… I will admit that I was taking pictures… and that the position I was taking them from wasn't the best… But I again continue to state that I wasn't taking perverted pictures."

After saying this, Saten looked to all three girls with what was most likely meant to be a calming, friendly smile.

The moment after he said that, the high school girls renewed their attack on Saten, causing the boy to go back to nervously smiling. Passersby who had stopped to look at the situation were now murmuring to themselves, obviously on the side of the high school girls.

Once Makoto noticed how badly Saten was doing, the Level 5 could only sigh as he walked forward, a grimace on his face as he approached Saten and the three girls.

Saten was the first person to notice Makoto, who when he noticed the Level 5 grimaced at him in a way that clearly communicated that the level 0 was unhappy to see Makoto.

One of the girls, most likely the leader of the group, picked up on the grimace of Saten and turned to look, and see, Makoto walking up on them. Blinded by her rage, the girl instantly walked up to Makoto, glaring at him as she did so.

"Oh are you one of this pervert's friends?! Coming by to help him out when you noticed that he was in danger?! Well you little bastard, you're going to get an earful as well!"

When the word little hit Makoto's ears, he felt a rage slowly building in his body from the insult, but this was tempered by the fact that he vividly remembered the pain of the dorm mother had inflicted on him. So instead of getting angry, Makoto sighed and gestured towards Saten, who was still grimacing at him.

"Listen… I'll be honest… I don't know what the hell is going on here, and I don't know if Saten is truly at fault or not… but I actually need him for something, so I'm just going to take him."

Makoto stepped in between the girl and Saten, reaching over with his hand to grab ahold of the level 0's arm so that they could leave. The leader girl stepped in between Makoto and Saten, glaring at Makoto with a look of pure venom.

"What the hell are you talking about, you're just going to take him?! We aren't done with either of you two fucking perverts, so you're not going anywhere!"

Makoto could only sigh to himself as he felt the eyes of passersby fall onto him, but almost instantly the passersby recognized his uniform and quickly shied away from the incident. The two other girls in the incident also seemed to realize that Makoto was from Tokiwodai, and they began to whisper to each other.

"H-Hey… isn't that… A Tokiwodai uniform? Aren't… Aren't the people who go there at least level 3 or above?"

"Y-Yeah… This might be a bit dangerous. I'm only a level 1 so we might get hurt if we piss him off…"

Before either of the two other girls could try and talk to their leader, the leader reached out and poked Makoto in his chest.

"Now listen here you little shit! Regardless of what school you go to, but as your senpai's we deserve your respect and decent treatment. Who the hell are you to try and disrespect us like this!?"

Makoto again sighed and began to rub the back of his head, his annoyance levels still rising as he listened to this girl. He still kept his cool in the form of not letting off his powers, but he glared up at the girl with a grimace on his face.

"Believe me, I'm not trying to disrespect you in anyway, despite your attempts to change my mind… But if you really want to know my name I can give it to you. My name is Misaka Makoto… and I get the feeling that you would know that name."

At that moment the entire dynamic of the conversation changed.

The two girls, who had been whispering each other over the fact that Makoto was wearing a Tokiwodai uniform both went sheet white, the fear in their eye palatable to anyone who looked at them. The girl who had been yelling at Makoto took a full step back from the Level 5, beads of sweat falling down her face as she looked at Makoto.

"You-You-You-You-You're Misaka Makoto!? The Ace of Tokiwodai?!... Oh god… You are wearing the Tokiwodai uniform, aren't you!"

At this point, Saten could read the situation, and looked completely torn between actually letting the situation resolve itself, or stepping in. After a moment of contemplation, Saten shook his head and reached out and touched the lead girl in order to get her attention.

"Uhmmm…. You know-..?!"

The moment that Saten touched the lead girl, she jumped in a panicked moment taking several steps back to get as far away from the two boys as possible. Once she had regained enough composure, she quickly bowed towards both Saten and Makoto in an apologetic gesture.

"I'm-I'm-I'm so sorry for wasting your time! Had I known that you were friends with such an influential member of the city I would have… Again I'm so sorry!"

After stating that, the lead girl looked up at her two friends, and without a word they took off at a brisk walking pace through the city, away from Makoto and Saten.

The later watched as the three girls ran away, grimacing slightly as he turned to look at Makoto.

"Well… I guess I should say thank you for helping me out there Chibi-san… But could you have possibly done it in a way that didn't make me look so bad."

Makoto sighed at Saten in a tired gesture, rubbing the bridge of his nose while he very, _**very**_ slowly felt his anger recede.

"I don't really know what to say Ruriko-san. I saw that you were in a stupid situation so I jumped at the chance to help you. Had I the idea that I would be seeing you being yelled at by three girls, I might have thought up a plan on how to get you out of it without any problems."

Saten shrugged at Makoto, going back to his phone to begin to sort through something on it, practically ignoring the Level 5.

"Hmm… well… I guess I should ask the obvious question. What in the world are you doing here Chibi-san? It's not often that I see you walking around."

Makoto stared at Saten with a look of annoyance before answering his question.

"I was just on my way to the arcade in the next district over since I have a bit of time on my hands, and I took this route because it was the fastest."

Saten did not initially respond to Makoto's explanation, as his attention was taken up completely by his phone. Even when he did answer the level 0 did not even look up at Makoto, nodding as his affirmative as he looked at his screen.

"Right… Right… That's great Chibi-san..."

Makoto looked at Saten for a few more moments before sighing.

"Well… What in the world are you doing here Ruriko-san? Why were you being yelled at by those three girls? I mean… It's not like I expect you to go around and be an enemy to woman kind normally. What brought that situation up today?"

Saten looked up from his phone at Makoto, an expression that communicated that the level 0 was suddenly torn between the idea of telling Makoto or not. After a moment, Saten sighed and motioned for Makoto to look at his phone.

"Could you look at this for me for a second? I'm having trouble finding something in this picture."

Makoto curiously began to look at the phone, feeling like he needed to know what in the world the level 0 was so interested in. It took Makoto two moments to take in the entirety of the picture, which caused him to put on an overly annoyed expression as he looked at Saten's phone.

"Uhmmm… Ruriko-san… What the hell is this?"

Saten frowned and began to scratch his head in confusion, though it could clearly be seen that the level 0 completely expected this.

"You can't find it either Chibi-san? Damn… I had hoped that your level 5 eyes would be able to find the problem with the photo, but I guess that was to much to hope for."

Makoto grimaced in annoyance at Saten, gesturing at the phone with an angered flare to his movements.

"Well I can perfectly tell what is wrong with this picture Ruriko-san! I can also tell why those girls were pissed off with you!"

The picture that was on the screen was an extremely low angle shot, one that got all three of the girl's from before panties on screen. Even in the picture Makoto could see the lead girl from before glaring at the camera, her anger clear to Makoto across time.

Makoto could only shake his head in disgust as he looked back up at Saten.

"Ruriko-san… Don't you think that girls would be a bit angry if you decided to take creeper shots of them?... Dear god why in the world did I decide to help you again?"

Saten turned the phone around to look at the picture, his look of confusion instantly turning to one of annoyance.

"Oh come on now Chibi-san! Isn't it obvious that the girls aren't the focus of the picture? Please… Those girls just came walking into my shot and I unfortunately got this picture."

Makoto pinched the bridge as he listened to the Level 0's explanation, only beginning to answer once the explanation was over.

"So… Please tell me Ruriko-san. What in the world was the focus of the shot if it wasn't the girl's underwear? Because the only other thing I see is the buildings and the sky!"

Saten scowled at Makoto and began gesturing to the surrounding area.

"I was trying to get a picture of the spirit that appears around here, but it was being a pain in the ass to get on camera! You have to get a very specific angle on it so to capture it, so-...?!"

Makoto held up his hand, cutting off Saten's explanation before he could get into it. After a few moment, the Level 5 looked up at the Level 0 with an almost pitying look on his face.

"Did you just say… That you were trying to take a picture of a spirit? As in… like a ghost?"

Saten looked at Makoto with squinted eyes, obviously aware that behind the Level 5's expression they were mocking him. He responded to this by puffing out his chest and grinned at Makoto, using his finger to add gesture to his explanation.

"Well let me tell you about this ghost Chibi-san! Apparently this ghost has been appearing in this area since the Night of the Black Snow, the bombing of Tokyo by the US! Apparently the spirit is one of a young woman whose love died in the war in the Pacific, and then was killed by a bomb dropped on her by his killers. It is said that she haunts this area, looking for young men who resemble her love to-...!?"

Again Makoto raised his hand in order to cut off Saten's explanation, his expression obviously showing that he was holding back chuckling out loud.

"So… I won't say that this is a waste of time for you and anyone else involved in this… But I have to ask… What in the world has brought this on? I mean… This is a one time thing… right?"

Again Saten puffed out his chest, grinning at Makoto despite knowing that the Level 5 was very near mocking him.

"Actually Chibi-san, I am proud to say that my second favorite hobby, after getting up to date news on Luka-chan, is looking into strange urban legends. I have been looking into-..."

This time Makoto did not even bother to hold up his hand, instead just openly chuckling at Saten, who, despite knowing that it was coming, glared at the Level 5. After a moment Makoto wiped a tear from his eye and looked back at Saten with a grin on his face.

"I'm sorry Ruriko-san, I truly am… But really now! I thought that your obsession with that idol was a bit over the top, but this honestly takes the cake. Why in the world would you spend time on this sort of stuff?"

Saten sighed in a tired way before he began to gesture in a grandiose fashion

"It is a very simple reason Chibi-san. I am not a man who can simply be confined to a normal civilian life. I am a man who craves adventure and the unknown, yet I know that I will never be tooled up enough to travel to the untamed corners of the world. So I take to searching for the weird an unknown nearby, to sate my craving for adventure."

Makoto again chuckled at Saten, causing the level 0 to again grimace at the Level 5. Makoto let out a breath in order to regain his composure, looking back at Saten with a grin on his face.

"So you sate your craving for climbing mountains and swimming in the tropics by looking into fake stories? … To keep myself from sounding like I'm making fun of you, I'll ask you... What it is that you have been looking into recently?"

Saten looked at Makoto with an annoyed look before turning back to his phone, scrolling through his phone in order to check in on what he had been looking into.

"Well beside this story, I've been looking into three other things in the city that have been getting a lot of posts lately. The first is the story of the Back Street Witch."

Makoto raised an eyebrow in almost mocking interest before commenting on the title of Saten's story.

"So… A witch huh? Tell me is this going to have something to do with magic, because to be honest I wouldn't be surprised that you believe in that as well."

Saten completely ignored Makoto's pointed comments in order to continue his explanation.

"The story behind the Back Street Witch was started by a post by a girl who ran into this woman in one of the many back alleys of the city. The woman offered the girl a selection of snacks that she claimed would would improve her life in various ways. The girl one snack in particular and for the rest of the day she found herself laughing at everything, even things that she never would have found funny. Every additional comment on this thread also deliver a similar story, though they do very on the emotion that the person felt, ranging from sadness, to anger, to even just excitement."

Makoto patiently listened to the Level 0's explanation before sighing.

"So… are you certain that these snacks weren't just drugged to cause people to feel these things? It might have been some strange bit of public testing for a new line of snack products that some company is making."

Again, Saten completely ignored Makoto before jumping into his second explanation.

"The second story I have been looking into is called Black Blood. This story started with a post about how a girl had noticed that her friend had been acting strangely, like much more distant and silent, and then the friend got injured. Instead of bleeding red normal blood from the wound, the friend was bleeding a blood that was near pitch black. When asked about it, the friend told the original girl not to worry about it, and within the day the injury looked as if it had never existed. Every comment tells of people having similar experiences."

Makoto again did not forsake the opportunity to make fun of the story.

"Well this obviously has the words new medicine test all over it. This has to be some sort reveal of a medical experiment of some new drug."

For the third time Saten ignored Makoto, launching into his final explanation.

"This last story is call the Scientist Stripper. This story starts from a guy who was walking down the street in a random part of the city when a woman stopped and asked him for directions. While he was explaining the directions to the woman, she began to strip out of her clothes in a-..."

At this point Makoto interrupted Saten a look of complete shock on his face.

"What you are describing to me doesn't sound like an urban legend, it sounds like a report about a pervert. Shouldn't this be finding it's way to the desk of Anti-Skill or someone?"

Saten, obviously tired of Makoto at this point, looked up at the Level 5 and began to open his mouth in order to retort, but he was interrupted doing even this, this time by a notification on his phone going off.

Saten looked at his phone as a vein in his forehead began to bulge, and he quickly began to scan his phone screen for what was going on. After a few moments Saten had an almost confused look on his face as he looked up at Makoto.

"Uhmmm…. Speaking of the our loverly law enforcement system, Tomo-chan just messaged me. Of all the things he would ask for… He asked if I had seen you."

Makoto returned Saten's confused look with one of his own, scratching the side of his head as his mind began to race with questions.

"Why… Why would Tomohisa be looking for me? To the best of my knowledge he shouldn't have any reason to see me."

Saten shook his head and looked back at his phone just as another message notification sounded out. He briefly took a moment to read the message before looking back up at Makoto, still as confused as he was before.

"Tomohisa says that he's looking for you because he was asked by Shirai-san to look for you? Why in the world is he looking for you? Don't you two share a dorm room?"

In an instant Makoto put two and two together, realizing what the entire conversation was about.

"Don't tell Tomohisa where I am! I do not want to deal with an angry Kuroko today."

Their was a slight pause before Saten began talking again, his eyes glinting in a curious manner.

"Uhmm… not to pry but… Why in the world would Kuroko be angry with you today? Did you… I don't know… eat his secret stash of snacks or something?"

Makoto sighed as he was again reminded of the fight he had almost had with Ichika, remembering also how Kuroko had specifically asked him to stay out of trouble today.

"I don't feel at fault for what happened… but I will state that I can understand why Kuroko is angry with me."

Saten nodded at Makoto in a bored manner before grinning at him in a mischievous way.

"Well this sounds like a problem that I would be better to not be a part of… So I texted Tomo-chan where they can find you."

"... What?"

Makoto looked up at Saten with a look of confusion on his face, only to see the confirmation that Saten had indeed sent a message on his phone. The level 5 looked at the grinning Level 0 with a look of pure contempt.

"I… I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate you right now."

With that, not even waiting for a response from Saten, Makoto quickly abandoned the area, walking at a brisk pace as to get away before his Judgement agent friend could show up.

The level 5 kept to the main road for a fair bit of his escape, but in a brief moment of paranoia he began to walk down one of the side streets in order to further limit his chance of coming into contact with the pissed off teleporter.

As he rounded the corner of one of these back streets, the level 5 heard two voices going back and forth in raised angry voices. One of the voices was one that Makoto did not recognize, but the other caused the Level 5 to stop and turn to find the source.

"... How many times must we go over this, huh? It was a very reasonable request I feel that you agreed to do, and yet you have somehow failed it so completely that it surprises me."

The voice that Makoto knew let out a sigh in response to the voice he didn't know, obviously already tired of the interaction they were having with the first voice.

"And I keep telling you that this 'request' of yours was fulfilled like an hour ago! You asked me to take you to a place, and I took you to that place, only to find out that the place you wanted to go to was different from the place that you told me you wanted to go to."

After a few more moments of searching, Makoto found the source of the two voices talking. Standing at the mouth of one of the alleyways leading into the back streets, two women were having a heated discussion with each other.

One of the women had extremely shoulder length purple hair bound in two braids behind her head, and a rather bored expression on her face. She was wearing a long white researchers coat over a white dress shirt, a tight black business skirt, pantyhose, and high heels.

The other woman, or girl to be precise, had back length wild black hair that she was currently running her left hand with an annoyed expression on her face. Her outfit was a white t-shirt with shorts and sneakers.

The purple haired woman grimaced at the black haired girl, gesturing at her in what was supposed to be an annoyed motion.

"It is not that I told you one place and I then meant another, I was correct in where I wanted to go, you simply misinterpreted my intent."

The black haired girl drew back in a way that displayed that she might have been at fault before composing herself and pointing back at the purple haired woman in an accusatory gesture.

"Well… even so, it's still your fault that we are running around without direction because you ran out before that lady could give us directions!"

Makoto, who did not care about what was going on in the slightest, approached the two women with a look of utter indignation on his face, all of it directed at the black haired student.

"Hey! Hey you! I don't know what you're doing here, but looks like we can finish-...!?"

As Makoto was right next to the student, the black haired girl extended her arm out, just as Makoto's face was in the path of its stretch. The force of the collision sent Makoto reeling for a few moments, his vision filled with stars.

If the black haired girl had noticed that she had just basically punched Makoto in the face, she did not show it on her face, as she continued to attempt to chastise the purple haired woman.

"I mean come on now! You got mildly insulted by the receptionist not recognizing the place you were trying to get to because it was so out of the way, and you decided to cuss her out in response! Had you just been a bit calmer then we would already be where you need to go."

The purple haired woman, who had noticed that Makoto had been punched, had a slightly confused look on her face for a few moments before responding to the black haired girl.

"My behaviour is a matter of having personal pride with myself. If they have the gall to call me out and then not even properly give me proper directions or respect, then I will refuse to give them any respect."

The black haired girl glared at the purple haired woman with a confused expression for a few moments before firing back.

"But the despite the fact that you were apparently disrespected by this company, you're still looking for the place they wanted you to go. That is something that I don't-...!?"

"You know… It's not polite to ignore when people are talking to you!"

Makoto, who had recovered from being punched in the face, finally lost his nerve and let out a small electric spark directly towards the black haired girl who had punched him.

As the bluish white spark raced over to the student, the black haired girl swung around in a panic when she heard it soaring through the air. In a move that any could have seen as instinctual, the black haired girl raised her left hand up to shield her face from the oncoming electric pain.

The spark of electricity collided with the black haired girl's hand, and instantly the spark vanished into thin air, leaving 0 impact on the world that a spark of electricity would.

The black haired student looked up at Makoto with a rage filled expression, finally noticing the level 5 who had been standing there for a few seconds.

"Chibiribiri… Two things for you. One… What the hell are you doing!? And second… What the hell are you doing here!?"

Makoto angrily gestured at the high schooler, completely unphased by the fact that his attack had no effect.

"Well I was just passing by and saw that you were here, and thought to myself 'hmmm… Should I go and finish the fight that we started last time?' And I decided, yes, now would be a good time to finish that."

The black haired student sighed and returned to a normal standing position, running her left hand through her wild mess of hair.

"Pardon me for saying this Chibiribiri… but didn't we finish that fight conclusively last time when I punched you in the face? And again… Why in the world are we fighting in the first place? As I recall, I was trying to save you and then you decided to attack me out of nowhere!"

Makoto grimaced at the black haired girl as an electric spark came out of his bangs.

"First off I'll remind you that my name isn't Chi- whatever the hell you came up with. It's Misaka Makoto. Second you 'conclusively' finishing that fight amounted to you knocking me down and running away. And third, you did not save me that time, all you did was stick your nose into the situation and then insulted me, hardly what I would call saving."

The black haired girl sighed again, her shoulders and back slumping as if a great weight was placed on her.

"Chibiribiri… Could you please just-..."

At this point the purple haired woman interjected, obviously trying to get the black haired girl's attention.

"Excuse me… but, could you two hurry it up please. I really need to be somewhere and it is getting quite hot just standing out here in the sun."

Both Makoto and the black haired girl turned to look at the purple haired woman, both obviously with the mind to tell her to stay out of it, but once the two saw the current state of the woman they both nearly jumped back in shock.

The purple haired woman had dropped her skirt down to her ankles and was in the middle of unbuttoning her shirt, the combination of these two actions showing off her lacy black underwear to the two students. She was still wearing her lab coat over her current state of attire, making so that only Makoto and the black haired student were the ones to see it.

The black haired student grabbed ahold of the woman's hands to prevent her from finishing undressing, the student's face lighting up in embarrassment.

"What in the actual fuck are you doing!? Do you have neither a sense of shame or a sense of common decency!? You have to be insane!"

The purple haired woman looked the girl with a blank expression for a few moments before she rolled her eyes at them.

"Oh please. Listen, when you have been naked in public as many times as I have, you don't get fussed over this little amount of stripping. You should actually try it, you might find that it sometimes feels nicer than walking around with clothes all the time."

The black haired student angrily began to rebutton the woman's shirt, every motion of that action a furious attack.

"I don't care how nice it feels, there are just certain rules in society that you always have to follow! Now hurry up and make yourself decent before-...?!"

The purple haired woman allowed the black haired girl to mess with her clothes for a few moments before she let out a deep and annoyed sigh, right before her face took on a devilish grin.

"Well if you don't believe me… How about I show you?"

What followed next could only be described by Makoto as the strangest gust of wind he had ever experienced, as immediately afterward, he found himself staring down the black haired who had been bereft of her shirt, leaving her in nothing but her blue striped bra.

At that moment a feeling of embarrassment welled up inside of Makoto, causing him to turn around without even thinking. Then, after realizing that he actually shouldn't care about that, he turned back just in time to see the black haired student running away, clutching her shirt in her hands.

The purple haired woman watched the black haired student run away, a slightly disappointed look on her face.

"Hmm… I guess some people just can't accept being semi-nude in public huh? Well then… Seeing as my other option has run away, could you-...! Hey!"

Makoto stopped trying to walk away when the purple haired woman when he heard that directed at him, and he turned to face her with an obviously annoyed look on his face.

"What in the world do you want?"

The purple haired woman began to rub the back of her head with a frown on her face, gesturing in the direction that the black haired girl had run.

"Well, seeing that my guide has disappeared, I was wondering if you would want to help me find my way instead. I mean… You wouldn't want to leave a lady wandering around on her own, would you?"

Makoto looked the semi-naked purple haired woman up and down, his annoyance with the woman almost causing him sneer, but after a moment he sighed and pointed at her in an almost defeated manner.

"Fine… I'll help you but…. Could you please get dressed?"


	9. A Certain Horrible Day - Part 3

"... Ahhhhh…. Really now… Is there anything in the world better than drinking a nice cold can of turnip and strawberry juice on a hot day? … Well… I could actually think of a few other flavors I would prefer… but I can definitely say that this is in my top 20."

… _To be honest with you, I would probably prefer for you to be drinking something… Anything else at this moment. It's not that I have anything against the two flavours… It's just that the thought of the two together…_

At the moment that he was thinking that, Makoto watched as the purple haired woman took a sip of the concoction that somehow qualified as a drink, and he had to focus everything he had on keeping himself from retching in disgust.

It had been a few minutes since the two had abandoned walking around in the afternoon sun aimlessly for the pleasure of sitting in the shade provided by the rather tall building that made up this section of the city.

Makoto had somehow managed to convince the purple haired woman from stripping every 5 seconds for the low price of buying her the 'drink' that she was currently consuming. She had still been tight lipped about where she needed to go, or why she needed his help, but at the very least the Level 5 did not have to cover her up in embarrassment every time he turned to look at her.

Letting out a sigh as the urge to retch passed him by, Makoto looked back at the purple haired woman to see her staring off into the sky with a blank, absorbed in thought expression on her face, can hanging just at her lips as if she was about to take a sip from it.

… _Well now seems as good as time as any to get some sort of answers out of her._

Makoto loudly cleared his throat as a way to get the woman's attention before he began talking to her.

"So… Not to be the kind of person to really push you… But also seeing as how I have a limited amount of time… Could you please tell me where the hell you need to go or at least explain what was happening with that bitch from earlier?!"

The purple haired woman was shocked back into awareness by Makoto's throat clearing and subsequent swearing, and she turned to look over at the level 5 and glared over at him.

"My… You have quite the mouth on you. I was wondering why you and that girl from earlier had such a hatred for each other, but now I think I understand perfectly why she despises you."

Makoto grimaced in response to this, gesturing up into the air as if he were directing it at the black haired girl.

"Don't try and make it out like I'm the sole reason that me and that girl hate each other. She actually shares most of the blame for the current state of our relationship, her and her 'has to stick her nose in everything' attitude."

The purple haired woman looked at Makoto with a look of passing interest, before shaking her head and sighing.

"That sounds… like you might have an interesting story to tell me… But let's just put that to the side for now shall we? Now… you asked for an explanation… but let's actually start with some introductions."

… _That is not what I asked you for, but fuck it. It's a good enough start, and it at least gives me a name to give to Kuroko so that you can be caught._

The purple haired woman, either choosing to ignore the annoyed look on Makoto's face or to not notice it at all, gestured toward herself with her free hand.

"My name is Ayase Yue, and I am a journalist affiliated with the Yukihiro group."

… _The Yukihiro group…? If I'm remembering correctly… Isn't that the group that has been investing into various parts of the national industry for the past 10 year? I didn't think that they owned a publication of any sort, though when I think on it I guess a company that big and that diverse must have something akin to one. In any case..._

Makoto lazily gestured to himself.

"Well my name is Misaka Makoto, and as you can probably guess I'm a student living here in the city."

After introducing himself Ayase Yue looked at him with a look of genuine interest rather than one of slight annoyance.

"Misaka Makoto… ? Are you… Are you perhaps The Misaka Makoto, as in the third level five ever categorized?"

Makoto gave Ayase a blank stare for a few moments before his gaze transformed from one of annoyance to one of slight admiration.

"That is… interesting. Normally people who hear about how I'm the third level 5 of Academy city just assume that means that I am the third strongest level 5 in the city. You… Have actually done your research."

Ayase smiled over at Makoto and even gave a slight showy bow towards him.

"Well I would be a very bad journalist if I didn't at least do my research. And on that note, I would like to do another facet of my job and interview you about-...!?"

Before she could finish talking she caught herself in the middle of her sentence, grimacing to herself as she shaked her head in a manner of disgust.

"Ah… I can't actually do that now can I? I still have this appointment that I have to get to, and I'm already running behind on my schedule. Uhmmm… Is it possible for me to get your contact info just in case we could do that interview?"

Makoto nodded at Ayase and gave the journalist his email address, which she accepted gratefully. Makoto, now very much interested in the conversation, leaned in toward Ayase.

"So… Ayase-san. Might I ask what it is you are researching now?"

Ayase had a thoughtful yet hesitant look on her face as she contemplated Makoto's question.

"I… Listen. As a journalist who is currently not affiliated with Academy City, my actual access to information is quite limited due to the higher ups wanting to control the information. And also as a journalist, a person who makes a lot of money from having exclusive information, I am very wary about handing out said information."

Makoto frowned in a bit of disappointment, but he completely understood Ayase's reasoning.

Ayase though, with a smile on her face, continued speaking after explaining her position.

"But I guess I should be fair and give you something. After all you have agreed to give me an interview and will help me to my appointment. The story that I am working on with this appointment is about AIM's. You do know what-..."

Makoto cut off Ayase with an answer to the question she hadn't finished asking.

"AIM's, or by their proper names An Involuntary Movement diffusion fields, are energy fields that are released by espers unconsciously. My class has covered that subject last year."

Ayase nodded, with a look of slight annoyance on her face for not getting the chance to explain the topic.

"Well… Yes that is exactly it… So the piece that I am writing isn't really about what AIM's are, though I am going to have to include a bit of a preamble about the topic, but rather about how these can be put to use by Academy City. The main idea floating around about the topic is some sort of instant identification system for espers, so to better police them…"

Ayase's explanation trailed off as she slowly began to realize what she was saying, looking over at Makoto with a worried and apologetic expression on her face.

Makoto simply shrugged off the obvious attack on esper rights and instead began to focus on helping Ayase.

"So I'm guessing that you are heading over to the AIM research center for this appointment of yours? I don't see how you or that girl from earlier could have possibly missed it, even with her idiocy."

Ayase sighed in response to that and shook her head.

"Well we did end up at the main AIM Research Center, but it actually turns out that I had to go to the AIM Analytic Research Center, which neither I or the girl from before knew where that was. It didn't help that the receptionist didn't seem to know that I had an appointment with their branch of the city either."

Makoto looked slightly surprised at the mention of the AIM Analytic Research Center, recognizing that name almost instantly.

"The Analytic Research Center? I know exactly where that is. It was actually the place where my level was upgraded from level 2 to level 3."

Ayase looked at Makoto with a look of surprise that changed into a grateful smile.

"Really now? Well then… Could you please the way then?"

Makoto nodded at the request and the two stood up from where they sat and walked off into the city.

… _I swear I am pretty sure this is all Makoto's fault… I am one hundred percent sure that I am suffering because of Makoto right now._

Resisting the powerful urge to sigh at that moment, Kuroko looked over at the massive pile of paperwork that was sitting on his desk, almost mocking him with how much work he had to do.

This giant pile of work was due to his handling of the capture of Juufuku Mito, which despite his best efforts to spin the situation of the capture in his favor, due to the obvious signs of 'outside' assistance. With this undeniable fact in the forefront of his superiors, Kuroko had been saddled with most of the grunt work of his Judgement station for the past week, wearing his already frail patience to its limit.

… _You know… If I could at the very least look forward to a nice, relaxing end of the day, one where I wouldn't get blowback from all the shit that Makoto does, I might be able to deal with all this a bit better… But no… No. Makoto had to go and get in a fight with fucking Orimura of all people… I wish I could just die now and save myself the suffering I'm in for._

Restraining yet another sigh, Kuroko reached out to take a pack of papers from the top of the stack, quickly filling out the things on the paper and on the digital document that he could without consulting any other source of data.

The Judgement agent had gotten halfway through this time consuming process when hs suddenly felt a hand placed on his shoulder, with a jovial voice accompanying it.

"So… I see Takamachi-san still has you working on that mountain of shit… You know… You'd think by now that he would be a bit more forgiving with 'your' antics."

Turning his head in the direction of the hand on his shoulder, Kuroko looked up to see his senpai, Konori Mao, standing behind him, offering him a can of cold juice.

Kuroko accepted the juice from his senpai, popping it open almost instantly and taking it a long sip from the can before finally letting out the sigh that had been building in him for the past day.

"You know just as well as I do that there is no way that Takamachi-san would ever give me a break on anything relating to 'my' antics. The straight laced bastard would have probably saddled me with this even if only a single hair was out of place on that guy's head."

Mao chuckled a bit before sitting down at his own desk, which was right next to Kuroko's, conveniently ignoring his own pile of work.

"Well… You know how most of the Anti-skill supervisors are. Most of them come from some sort of military background, so they are used to working in a very controlled environment, so going to having middle schoolers as their underlings is a bit…"

Kuroko sighed again and set the can of juice down on his desk, hanging his head in a depressed manner.

"So it's all my fault for being so 'immature' that I can't stop my friend, who could probably turn me into a paste on the concrete if he wanted to, from going crazy whenever he gets angry… Oh god why do I have to be alive right now? Could I just go curl up and die somewhere to escape this misery?"

Mao chuckled again at Kuroko's spiral into depression as he finally turned his attention to his own work, picking up a packet of paper to look through. After a few moments, he grinned over at Kuroko.

"Well… At least you are having a better time than Tomohisa and the rest of the Judgement agent's out there right now, looking for that serial bomber and maybe one second away from death."

Kuroko paused in his work, looking up at the grinning Mao with a blank expression on his own face.

"... You know… Mao-senpai… I do know that you have a sadistic sense of humor from time to time… but… That has to be one of the worst jokes you have told in a while."

Mao looked at Kuroko for a moment with a blank, unsure gaze of his own before a look of realization slowly began make its way across his face.

"Oh… Oh thats right… You have been stuck doing the stuff that Takamachi-san swamped you with. That's why you don't know about the bombings…"

Kuroko's expression changed to one of complete shock at the realization that Mao was indeed not telling a joke.

"What… What in the world has been going on with these bombings then, and why have I not heard about them going on?"

Mao let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, his obvious jovial mood slowly draining from his face.

"Well… let's start with the first part of that question shall we? These attacks as they are now being called apparently started over a month ago, though back then they seemed more like pranks based upon the amount of disturbance they caused. The first recorded instance of these attacks was a popping sound and a bit of smoke coming from a planter on a main street, and ever since then various random explosions have been going off, and no demands have been given to anyone because of them."

Kuroko began to scratch his chin, his mind slowly taking in the information that had been presented to him, processing it in order to better to ask questions.

"So… Has there been any real commonality in the attacks? Like similar targets, similar time of day... anything similar?"

Mao thought for a few moments before answering.

"Tell me Kuroko… Have you heard about DIME's before?"

Kuroko scratched his head for a moment before shrugging over at Mao.

"Uhmmm… I don't really know about what you might be referring to… Might it be something to do with those american coins?"

Mao chuckled in response to Kuroko's answer, shaking his head as he began to answer.

"Well… I guess you are on track when you were talking about metal, but no it has nothing to do with coins. DIME's are Dense Inert Metal Explosives. Long explanation short, these bombs are basically tungsten dust launchers that are supposed to kill people within an extremely short range. And the reason this is important is because around many of the bombing sites, there seems to be a thin layer of tungsten coating everything."

Kuroko raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"That seems… like it would be very easy to easy to track and be far more publicized. I mean… I can already see the title of the news story right now. 'Military Bomb goes off in the middle of civilian district. Do we need more regulation against military development?'"

Mao nodded at Kuroko.

"Yeah… That would probably be the case if it was actually a DIME, though unfortunately it isn't. While the existence of tungsten at the explosion site makes it seem like it was a DIME, the lack of any container or deaths make it seem like it wasn't. Also Anti-Skill is trying to control the information getting out because they believe that the bomber might be doing this for publicity since no demands have been sent."

Kuroko grimaced at the thought of his superiors controlling information flow, but after a moment sighed in resignation.

"Well… that might be for the best actually… Seeing as how they probably wouldn't want to cause a panic amongst students either. On that note… Has Anti-skill looked into whether or not it was an esper that caused the explosion? Considering the situation that seems to be the most logical conclusion."

Mao shook his head again.

"Anti-skill also had that idea and has been looking into espers with powers similar to what was happening, but it very much seems that all the ones that are able to do something like this have an alibi for when the explosions were going off."

Kuroko nodded at his senpai, his thoughts drifting off due to that explanation.

… _But wait… Haven't there been incidents recently where the perpetrator is an esper with a power much higher than what they were supposed to be? Couldn't that also be the case for this one as well?_

At that moment Kuroko looked over at the pile of paperwork, and the question of figuring out this puzzle fled from his mind instantly.

 _Ah well… This isn't my problem right now anyway. As long as Makoto manages to stay out of this problem, I'll be fine. And what are the chances of him getting into yet another shitstorm in one day?_


	10. A Certain Horrible Day - Part 4

_**Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

* * *

… _That was… a complete and total waste of time… Wasn't it?_

Makoto sighed to himself as he heard the automatic doors of the arcade hiss shut behind him. As he stood just outside of closing business, he went over the amount of time and money he had just spent on his escapades. He even reached into his pockets, looking for the extra tokens he kept on hand for emergencies, and fought back another sigh when he found that he had none.

… _I had over 50 of the fucking things saved up before coming here, and I even bought 200 more of them when I got here, and I still didn't even come close to getting the Silver Mask!_

A grimace forming on his face, Makoto began to walk away from the arcade, walking through the mall without any particular plan or destination in mind.

It had been a few hours since Makoto and Ayase Yue had parted ways in front of the AIM building, allowing Makoto to finally arrive at the arcade which had been his goal since he had been kicked out of the dorm earlier in the day.

Once he had arrived at the arcade, what followed was one of the worst runs of luck Makoto had ever had when playing arcade games. He had not only received the lowest amount of tickets he could get from most of the games he had played, but somehow had also not received tickets for some of the games he had played as well. Makoto could barely scrape together enough tickets to even afford the most basic prize of the arcade, his hopes of obtaining the Silver Mask completely dashed.

Makoto could not help but shake his head as he walked through the mall, cursing himself on the terrible luck. The level 5 desperately began to think of other things, anything to take his mind off of his current run of bad luck.

… _Well… I guess I should at least try and find somewhere to go since curfew is approaching. Going back to the dorm… is completely out of the question. I get the feeling that the second I go back Kuroko will be waiting to kill me for everything that happened earlier… Which doesn't sound particularly fun for me._

Shaking his head to himself again, Makoto sighed and began to look around the mall with a slightly interested gaze, hoping that something in the mall would grab his full attention and take his mind off of his depression.

As it was rapidly approaching the curfew time for elementary and middle school students, the number of people who were in the mall was drastically lower that what it would had been during the middle of the day. Most of the shops, restaurants and other attractions were being shut down for the day, so Makoto's options for distraction were actually limited.

After walking down the mall promenade for a few more seconds and finding nothing interesting, Makoto slowly began to give up on finding a distraction. However, out of the corner of his eye, Makoto spotted something.

Walking towards one of the service entrances for the mall, a rather blank and oblivious look on her face, was one of the girls who had been rightfully accosting Saten earlier. Though Makoto did recognize the girl, the reason he had taken notice of her was tucked under her arm.

What at first glance seemed to be the Silver Mask that Makoto had wasted time and money to try and obtain instantly grabbed the Level 5's attention, causing his heart to quicken in a mixture of outrage and despair.

On second glance, however, Makoto realized to his distaste that the mask wasn't all that he had initially thought it was.

 _That… That actually has to be the most terrible knock-off Sentai mask that I have ever seen. The mouthpiece of the mask is from a completely different series when compared to the chin of the mask, and the visor doesn't seem to be related to any series at all! Even looking at it from hear I can see that it doesn't even seem a silver spray paint that they used to make it silver, it seems to be just some metal colored spray paint._

Makoto watched as the girl and the knock off mask walked into the service entrance, the girl not noticing that she was being observed. Derived of yet another distraction, Makoto continued to walk down the center of the mall, not even knowing what he was going to do.

He was finally reaching the end of the mall and finally began to seriously consider leaving the mall altogether, when suddenly heard the sound of two people arguing in loud voices at each other. One of these voices, familiar to Makoto, instantly caused the level 5's blood to boil.

"... Aghhhh! Come on you impulsive little shit! Can't you see that I'm trying to help you out here?! Just tell me where the fuck I can take you so that we can both go home!"

Makoto turned his head toward the arguing, his face already twisted into an expression of disgust since he already knew who the voice belonged to.

Standing in front of a bench, in a posture that was corralling the second person into a corner, was the black haired girl who had been arguing with Ayase Yue earlier. In her left hand was a bunch of grocery bags while her right was holding bags from a popular clothing store, and her face was twisted into an expression of out right rage.

The 'little shit' that the black haired girl was corralling, meanwhile…

"I ain't tellin you shit you giant gorilla bitch! How about you just leave me the hell alone and go get plowed by someone?!"

"You little…!"

Standing on the bench, constantly faking left and right trying to break out of the black haired girl's corralling, was an primary school aged foreign kid , with dark grey eyes and crew cut blonde hair. He had a clearly pissed off expression on his face as he glared at the black haired girl.

The girl, in response to this, returned a glared of her own.

"Come on now and be sensible here! You know as well as I do that you little primary school shits have to get back to your dorms pretty much now! If you don't you could get into a lot of trouble with either Judgement or any delinquents that decide to go after you! Even a primary schooler like you should understand that it's bad for you to be out late!"

The primary schooler grimaced at the girl and shook his fist at her, not even stopping his attempts to escape for a second in the face of the girl's explanation.

Makoto, who was looking at this scene from afar, could not help but feel embarrassed for the black haired girl as she continued to curse at the blonde kid. There was basically no one in the mall aside from the employees and a few other students that were hanging around, but all of them had their attention on the scene that the girl and kid were causing.

After watching the scene for a few more moments, Makoto could not help but sigh.

… _I know for certain that I shouldn't get involved in this bullshit… Every time I get involved with this bitch's problems I end up in more problem then it is worth. Walking away and waiting for a better time to get back at her would be the entirely best option at this point. Just leaving those two to their own devices and leaving is probably the best-..._

"Listen here you little shithead! Gods help me if I have to drag you to the nearest Judgement officer, because if I do, I will do it by using your fucking neck!"

With that shout from the girl punctuating Makoto's thoughts, all plans for him abandoning the scene disappeared as he began to rub the back of his head, his face a mixture of disgust and confusion.

… _Ok… Lets do it like this then. I walk up and diffuse the situation between the two and get the kid to run off, after which I drag her away and finally beat her… Yeah… that sounds like a good plan._

With that in mind Makoto began to walk over to the scene that the girl was causing, which had almost evolved into the girl tackling the blonde kid.

On the approach to the scene, as he was being far more attentive than he had been previously, Makoto noticed that the black haired girl was winding up to send out a wild fling of an arm that was aimed directly at where his head would be in a few moments.

The level 5 took a casual step to the side just in time to avoid the flung arm, and he turned his full attention towards the black haired girl with a slight grimace on his face.

"... You know… You really, really need to pay attention to-!?"

Just as he was about to finish berating the black haired girl, Makoto heard a snapping sound coming from just behind his head, and before he knew what was happening or could react, the level 5's sight completely disappeared.

In an instant Makoto began to panic, clawing at whatever was covering his face in a pure panic. After a moment of this, there was a loud ripping sound, and the bag that was covering Makoto's face broke apart, and bits of fabric flew out onto the ground around the level 5.

There was a brief silence over the scene as Makoto fumed in rage, turning to look at the black haired girl with a grimacing expression on his face.

"You… You really need to pay a-fucking attention to your surroundings! How many time has it been that you have hit me with a random punches out of nowhere!? Honestly… Even a gorilla would have better control than…?"

Makoto's rage tapered off almost as soon as it started, as he noticed that instead of getting angry back at him, the black haired girl suddenly buried her reddening face in her hands out of what seemed to be embarrassment. Makoto found the gesture strange, seeing as how the girl had not really done anything to prompt begin embarrassed.

Makoto, upon taking a moment to examine the situation in depth, realized that there was a piece of fabric lying on his head. He reached up and picked it off, holding it in his hand to get a decent look at it.

"... Oh."

As he let out that single sound, Makoto came to the realization that what he was holding in his hands was a pair of panties, and a very adult pair at that. As soon as her realized that, the Level 5 noticed that all the fabric that had fallen out of the bag when he ripped it open was some sort of female underwear, which was now scattered all over the ground.

Makoto took a moment to rub the back of his head, completely taken aback by what had just happened.

… _What in the world should I do now… I think going with my first instinct and getting as far away from here as possible is the right idea… Yeah… Let's go with that._

Makoto turned on his heel and began to walk away from the situation, not even bothering to look back at what he was departing from.

The level 5 barely got three steps away when he felt a hand close around his collar, whirling him around to face the angry black haired girl, who had rage filled tears streaming down her face as she glared at Makoto.

"You… You…! Why in the world do you keep wanting to ruin my life!? Is there ever an instance that you exercise an iota of self restraint!?"

Makoto was shook back and forth by the black haired girl for several seconds before angrily shoving his way out of the high schoolers grasp. After fixing his out of place clothes, Makoto returned the black haired girl's glare with one of his own.

"You know… I could say the same thing about you! The number of times that I've seen you getting involved in shit that you have no business being in is just astounding to me! What in the world do you get from all of this?!"

The black haired girl, now fully enraged, had to hold herself back to keep herself from pouncing on the level 5. She angrily began to rub the bridge of her nose to try and relieve some of the pent up anger.

"How about you mind your own damn business first before talking to me about putting my nose in everything! Always going around and being like 'You… You… You!' I have a name you know! It's Kamijou Touka, and it's about time you learn it!"

Makoto grimaced at Kamijou, folding his arms over each other and turning away from the black haired girl.

"Well it's not my fault that I keep coming after you. After all the insults you threw upon me at our first meeting, not to mention how annoying you're power is when I fight against it. In my position wouldn't you want to angrily chase down the person who wounded you so?"

Kamijou let out a low sigh that told Makoto how tired the girl was of the situation.

"No I wouldn't as a matter of fact. I don't enjoy ruining other peoples lives like some vengeful middle schooler. Why don't you run back to your dorm since it's almost curfew for you little shits."

Makoto's hair sparked a bit with bluish white electricity as he listened to Kamijou's angry rambling, his own patience draining as he did so. With the mention of curfew, Makto decided to turn and looked toward the blonde boy that had been ignored due to Makoto's interference.

When he turned to where the blonde boy was sitting, Makoto noticed two things about his surroundings.

Firstly was the fact that the blonde haired boy was no longer there, having disappeared with but one sign of his escape.

The second thing Makoto noticed was that the underwear that he had spilled out all over the ground had disappeared along with the boy, giving Makoto an idea of some sort of link.

… _That little bastard… He's either completely crazy, or a praiseworthy genius! Now then… the question is do I use this opportunity to finally beat the bitch up, or just wander off and leave that for later… I'm not really feeling like getting into a fight right now, so how about I just let that kid make her suffer for a bit._

Makoto backed off from Kamijou, and did a mocking little bow toward the girl.

"Oh I am so sorry then. How about I just leave to whatever you were doing then? You seemed to have it 'under control', so I'll just leave you to it."

Makoto turned around and a huge grin formed on his face as he walked away from a stunned Kamijou, who seemed to have the idea that the two would have fought against each other.

"Oh… Well then… Okay…?"

Makoto managed to turn the corner just in time for him to hear the sound of complete rage and despair from Kamijou.

"Oh my God! NO!"

Makoto began to chuckle to himself as he continued to walk through the mall, wiping a tear from his eyes.

 _That was so worth dealing with that chick… Though now that I think on it, having a elementary schooler running around with a bunch of underwear is probably a bad thing isn't it? I should probably tell a Judgement guy that this is happening so they can take care of it._

With that thought in mind, Makoto continued to walk through the mall toward the exit, keeping an eye out for any green and white armbands as he did so.

Mere moments later, Makoto spotted the shield icon of Judgement on the arms of an officer who was talking with several middle schoolers, shooing them along and reminding them of the impending curfew. When they were no longer engaged, Makoto walked up and tapped the officer on the shoulder.

"Excuse me? Judgement-san! I'd like to inform you that there is a primary schooler running around here with a bunch of-...?!"

The Judgement agent turned around to face Makoto, and it only took an instant for the Level 5 to recognize that the person he was talking to was Tomohisa.

Remembering that Tomohisa was supposed to be looking for him on orders from Kuroko, Makoto immediately turned away from the agent and began to run away.

A sudden force grabbed ahold of the Level 5's legs, causing Makoto to trip up and fall face first onto the tiles of the mall floor. Makoto lay on the ground for a few moment, letting the embarrassment and rage slowly work their way through his system so that he could regain his composure.

Tomohisa's distressed and concerned voice began speaking to Makoto from directly above him.

"Uhmmm… Misaka-san? Are… Are you feeling okay?"

Makoto slowly began to pick himself up from the ground, brushing the dust from his clothes as he did so. Once he was standing, the Level 5 turned to look at the concerned face of Tomohisa with a grin on his face.

"I'm fine, I'm fine Kaname-san… Though to be honest I would have prefered you to stop me in a more… peaceful manner."

Tomohisa nervously chuckled at Makoto, rubbing the back of his head in a twitchy sort of gesture.

"I'm sorry about that Misaka-san, but… I was told by Shirai-san to keep an eye out for you… and the second I saw you trying to run away… I…"

As Tomohisa trailed off, Makoto could not help but sigh and pat the Judgement officer on the shoulder.

"No harm, no foul Kaname-san. As long as you meant nothing by it, I won't take any offense. Now then…"

Makoto turned around and again began to walk away, only to be stopped when a hand came down on his shoulder. The level 5 turned to see the expected concerned look of Tomohisa, whose arm was holding Makoto back like a vice.

"Sorry Misaka-san… but like I said, Shirai-san wanted me to keep an eye out for you, and to keep you out of trouble after… well, the incident at your dorm. I'm sorry but… I don't feel right letting you go off and getting into trouble"

Makoto grimaced at Tomohisa before quickly changing his expression to one he hope was reassuring to the Judgement agent.

"What? Me? Causing trouble? Come on now Kaname-san. It's almost curfew time, and I plan to go straight back to the dorms after we are done here. Do I look like I am capable of causing that much trouble between now and then."

The silent look that Tomohisa gave Makoto perfectly described how the Judgement agent thought of the Level 5. Tomohisa instantly realized what he had done, and began trying to encourage the downtrodden Makoto.

"It's nothing to do with you Misaka-san, believe me! It's just… It's just that there is a string of serial bombings going on lately, and I'm worried that with your luck you might get involved in something."

Makoto looked up at Tomohisa, a confused and shocked expression on his face.

"Serial bombings?! What in the world are you talking about?! I haven't heard anything about… Is this another thing that the city is keeping from spreading in order to maintain the peace?"

Tomohisa grimaced at Makoto's reply, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"It's not as if they are doing it for that reason alone… There have been no demands or objectives made by the person who is doing this, and Anti-Skill doesn't want to give this person attention if that is all they are doing it for. Also-..."

Makoto raised a hand in order to cut off Tomohisa, the Level 5's face twisted in an annoyed expression.

"Yeah, Yeah I've heard the spiel before from Kuroko before, and he is far better at selling it then you. Can you tell me about these bombings you were going on about? I would like at least some idea about whether or not some suspicious package I see lying around is going to kill me."

Tomohisa again looked sheepishly around, before shaking his head at Makoto.

"Sorry Misaka-san… but that is actually need to know information that can't be shared outside of Judgement and Anti-Skill. I can't share more than I already have."

Makoto crossed his arms in an annoyed gesture, causing the already timid Tomohisa to panic a bit and quickly change the subject.

"S-So Misaka-san! You came up to me looking like you had something to say, so let's see if I can take care of that now."

Makoto let out a sigh and sat down on a nearby planter, not even attempting to seem like he was leaving.

"Since there is little else I can do right now I might as well tell you about that problem. I saw a high schooler terrorizing a primary schooler a little while ago, and as the upstanding citizen I am, I attempted to intervene. I managed to allow the primary schooler to get away, but they made off with something of the high schooler's, so I'm worried that their being chased. Perhaps you should go and help them before something happens."

Tomohisa looked slightly apprehensive and looked at his phone, checking his phone for the time.

"Well… Just to check to make sure… Did this primary schooler look like a foreigner? Blonde hair, grey eyes, slightly terrible attitude?"

Makoto looked slightly surprised at how well Tomohisa was able to guess the boy's appearance, which made the Judgement agent sigh when he realized that he was correct.

"Yeah I knew it. That kid you saw was one Adamaska Weissman, a regular troublemaker that seems to like terrorizing this area. While I'm sure the high schooler might be at blame for some of that situation, Adam-san… Has a way of causing people to act irrationally, so to say."

 _Weissman…? Could that be…? Well it's not exactly a common name in Japan, so it's very much likely that he is…_

Makoto looked back up at Tomohisa, who seemed to have not noticed that the Level 5 hadn't been pondering something while he was talking.

"So… Does that mean he's got some sort of mind control or mind reading? How are you going to deal with him then?"

Tomohisa shook his head in dismissal of Makoto's question, his expression one of intense thought.

"It's nothing like that at all Misaka-san. He's not an esper and hasn't taken any development courses, hes just… got that sort of personality. Anyway the best way I can think of to deal with this is to call Adam-san's mother and have her-...!?"

At that moment, Tomohisa was spun around by someone and shook to the point that Makoto could make out the Judgement officer's eyes spinning in his head. The Level 5 stood up and looked to see who it was that was shaking Tomohisa, and found that it was Kamijou Touka, who had tired defeated tears streaming down her face.

"Please… Please mister Judgement-san… You have to help me! I'm at my wits end here!"

Tomohisa, still confused from the being shaken to the point he had to hold back vomit, looked down at the older girl with a worried expression.

"Is… Is there a problem miss? I'm sure that I can help if you would just calm down for a moment."

Kamijou sank to her knees in front of Tomohisa, silently crying in front of the panicking Judgement agent.

"He ran off with all of them… I spent my entire weeks budget on them, and he ran off with them like they were nothing… Such Misfortune!"

Tomohisa looked over at Makoto, the Judgement agent completely lost for words for what to do. Makoto sighed and gestured toward Kamijou with an annoyed motion.

"This is the girl that was messing around with Adam-san earlier. As you can see, she has probably learned the error of her ways by now."

Kamijou turned to look at Makoto, who she had not noticed up until now, and her tears began flowing even faster upon seeing the Level 5.

"It's You! It's always you! Every single terrible thing that has happened today has had your bloody hand in it hasn't it! Why in the world must you torment me so?!"

Tomohisa slowly looked between Kamijou and Makoto, his expression turning into a suspicious glare toward the Level 5.

"Misaka-san… What in the world did you do?"

Makoto took a step back from the the Judgement agent, his face turning into one of confusion due to the accusation.

"What in the world are you talking about?! I didn't do anything at-...?!"

Just before Makoto could refute the accusation, they all heard the sound of a young boy laughing, and the Level 5 recognized it as the voice of young Adamaska. As one the group of three turned toward the voice, and saw the young boy.

The young foreign boy had on the bootleg silver mask that Makoto had seen the delinquent girl carrying earlier, and tucked underneath his arm was all the underwear that had been swiped from Kamijou. The masked thief was standing on top of a planter, which made him look down on the group.

Adamaska smiled down on the three older kids and uncerimoniusly began throwing the garments under his arm up into the air.

"Ha, Ha, Ha! I, the great and powerful hero of justice, have confiscated these unholy garments from the evil that is Gorilla Girl! And the only way to properly defeat this menace is to spread these garments out for all to see."

Makoto instantly realized what Tomohisa was talking about when he said that Adamaska had that kind of personality, and he then turned to look at Kamijou, who had a mortified look on her face.

Before either of them could react, Tomohisa walked forward, a personable smile on his face.

"Adam-san! I can see how much fun your having, but could you possibly calm down for a moment and give this girl her things back? She is clearly in distress because of what you are doing."

Adamaska grimaced underneath his fake mask and he shot rude gesture at Tomohisa in response.

"I am the Great and Powerful hero of Justice, and I refuse to give any comfort to that Gorilla Girl! After what she has done to me, she deserves-...?!"

Tomohisa raised a hand up to cut off the young child, and with his other hand produced his phone, still with a professional smile on his face.

"I get it Adam-san. You really seem to be having fun, but if you don't stop soon, I will have to be forced to call your mother, and I know how much you-..."

It was at the exact moment that Tomohisa mentioned the word mother that Adamaska froze where he stood. The very next moment he through the underwear down on the ground, and he ran up to Tomohisa, tears already starting to form in his eyes.

"Please, Please don't call her here! I just got here to forgive me for the last time I did something stupid, and I really don't want to be in trouble again! Please…!"

As the tears began to pour down the boy's face, Tomohisa began to pat him on the head in an effort to calm him down. While this was going on, Kamijou silently stood up and began to gather up her underwear, looking like her entire will to live had been drained out of her.

Makoto at that point, seeing that the situation had pretty much resolved itself, walked up to Adamaska and pulled the fake mask off the kids head.

"Well I don't see how you should be forgiven for stealing things from two different people."

Adamaska turned around and grabbed ahold of the mask, a teary defiant glare on his face.

"I didn't steal this from anyone at all! I found this fair and square, and I won't be giving it up to any-...?!"

Makoto yanked the mask away from Adamaska and held it just slightly out of his reach, relishing the chance to actually be able to do it to someone.

"Yeah right, why don't you try and make a better lie than that. I saw the person who owns this earlier and know…?"

Makoto's explanation trailed off as he turned his attention to the mask absentmindedly and found something that caused him to examine the item.

The silvery substance that coated the front of the mask that Makoto had taken for paint, actually had a metallic sheen and feel to it, making the Level 5 think that it was some sort of metal coating. The weight of the item was slightly off for what it was, but not enough for anyone uneducated to notice.

… _Well that is strange. Usually when people make these fakes they usually use worse quality parts than the original, not better. Maybe the maker wanted to sell more off it's quality rather than its content, but-...!?_

In the briefest on instants, Makoto noticed a bulge form on the surface of the mask and pop, and immediately after, a pain shot through his cheek.

The level 5 instantly dropped the mask to the ground and felt his cheek, and when he pulled his hand away and held it to his face, found that it was dyed red with blood.

… _Oh shit!_

Makoto looked down at the mask as it lay on the ground and saw that there were already several more bulges forming on the surface of the mask. Even more worryingly was the face that Adamaska was reaching down to pick up the mask, and annoyed look on his face.

"You messed it up! What in the world did you do to-...?!"

Tomohisa, who noticed what had happened to Makoto, instantly reacted and grabbed ahold of Adamaska's collar and dragged him away from the mask as quickly as humanly possible. In the same moment, Makoto unceremoniously grabbed ahold of the mask and threw in a unpopulated direction at full force.

As the mask flew through the air, several of the bulges popped, and now that Makoto was expecting it, he saw metallic dust fly out from the mask, and all around glass windows broke, planters were split, and shrapnel flew around without a care.

Makoto grimaced, his brain racing as he tried to think about what to do, searching for a plan that would save everyone.

 _Destroying that thing is the only way I can stop what is going to happen. I can't really mess with it magnetically because of competing AIM's, so the best option is to hit it hard with a railgun so to weaken the force to the explosion._

With that idea in mind, Makoto reached into his pockets, digging for a coin in order to shoot off as a railgun.

It was only after he had begun to dig in his pockets that the Level 5 remembered that he no longer had any coins, having spent all of them in the arcade trying to obtain a similar looking mask.

 _Fuck! If I can't do that, I will have to try and destabilize it by myself. I won't be able to stop it, but I might be able to weaken it that way._

Makoto lobbed a lance of bluish white electricity at the, making on the fly calculations about the electromagnetism of several different metals as he prepared to throw another lance.

The level 5's first lance hit the mask and residuale sparks ran over the mask for a moment before dispersing.

The next moment, before Makoto could throw another lance, the largest bulge yet formed on the mask looking like it was going to pop immediately.

 _Shit, Shit, Shit! What do I do? What in the world can I-..._

"Such Misfortune!"

In the moment between the bulge bursting and the shrapnel flying, a figure dove in between Makoto as the explosion of metal dust went off.


	11. The End of A Certain Horrible Day

_**Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

* * *

… _Well this is something that I don't really need to see._

Kuroko grimaced as he stood on the other side of yellow caution tape, watching as Anti-skill officers solemnly guarded the cordoned off area.

The area that was cut off from Kuroko looked like it was more at home in a war torn third world country than the most technologically advanced city in the world. Every storefront in the affected area had their windows and glass doors blown out, with planters and benches on the promenade upturned and broken from an extreme force. All over the scene was a thin film of silvery metallic dust that made the scene unearthly as well as out of place.

Kuroko could only shake his head and he looked at the scene, taking out his phone and checking the time to find that it was close to midnight, well past the curfew of middle schoolers.

… _I'm only out here this late because Takamachi-san doesn't want me to go back to the dorms without a proper scolding… but to be honest this isn't really my fault! If Makoto had been forced to stay put in the dorms like he was supposed to…_

Kuroko began to grumble under his breath as he thoughts trailed off, walking back to a nearby undamaged bench and sitting down with a disgruntled sigh.

"My Kuroko-kun, you sound like an elderly gentleman when you do that. Don't you know that sighing lets out the happiness inside of you?"

Kuroko turned to find a woman with long green hair tied up behind her hair in a ponytail smiling down on the young Judgement agent in a motherly fashion despite only being around 20. She was wearing the black and blue officer outfit of Anti-skill and she held two cans of juice in her hands.

Kuroko put on a smile as he looked at the woman, bowing slightly to her as he realized who it was.

"Harlaown-san. It's nice to see you again, though considering your position we are actually going to be seeing each other regularly."

Harlaown crossed her arms and pouted at Kuroko, clearly upset at something that the young boy had said.

"Kuroko-kun… Just because I am technically your superior doesn't mean that you should be addressing me so formally. You can call me Lindy, or even Lindy-chan, if you want."

Kuroko briefly grimaced at that before carefully picking out his next few words.

"It's not that I don't want to address you informally Harlaown-san, it's just that… I get the feeling that Takamachi-san would be… not pleased by my apparent lack of respect for my superiors."

Harlaown continued to pout at Kuroko, but she nodded in agreement with the Judgement agent. She reluctantly handed Kuroko the can of drink as she took a seat next to him on the bench.

"Yeah Shiro is a bit strange that way. He still hasn't accepted me as his second in command, despite all of the work that I have been putting in for him."

… _Well it might be the fact that you were forced upon him as his second in command rather that appointed by him, but I don't really have much to say about that._

Kuroko nonchalantly opened the can of drink and took a quick sip, and the result was a feeling of complete strangeness. Looking down at the can in his hand, he found that what he had just drunk was a form of green tea that was akin to british tea.

Kuroko turned to look at Harlaown with a confused gaze, where he saw the woman happily sipping the tea as she looked over at the destroyed section of the mall. The green haired woman turned to look at Kuroko, gesturing towards the wreckage.

"So… That bomber really did a number on this place. Anti-skill had thought that the limit of their destruction causing would be limited to the amount that took out the convenience store, but it's clear now that was wrong."

Kuroko looked over at the silver covered rubble and shook his head, grimacing at the thought of what the explosion must have been like.

"At the very least this one ended with a few minor cuts and bruises, unlike the one Judgement agent who is still in a coma. At least we are lead to believe it ended that way with Tomohisa's debrief."

Harlaown tilted her head in a confused manner before recognizing the name.

"Ah yes Kaname Tomohisa! Your partner. You do have to properly introduce me to him next time you get the chance. He was very helpful with his debrief as well as keeping young Adam-kun calm until his mother arrived."

Kuroko raised an eyebrow in mild interest.

"So I take it that the kid got back to his mother okay?'

Harlaown fidgeted a bit when Kuroko said that taking a moment to look over her shoulder towards the command area before looking back at the Judgement agent.

"Uh… Well yes he did… And right now Weissman-san and Shiro are… in the middle of a heated debate that really didn't require my attention. Also your partner was told that he could go home as well, seeing as it is past curfew for middle schoolers."

Kuroko grimaced in response to this.

"He was allowed to go home while I have to wait to be lectured to for something that was beyond my control. I don't understand why I'm treated so specially."

Harlaown looked worried for a few moments before reaching out to put a comforting hand on the Judgement agents shoulder.

"You don't really have to worry about that for much longer Shirai-san. After Shiro is done speaking with Weissman-san, he just has to finish inspecting the evidence that was all over the bomb sight."

Kuroko let out a brief shudder when he remembered the sight of cloth and meat strewn across the ruined section of the mall, shaking his head to get them out of his head.

"Well… Since there isn't much he can gain from looking at that mess, that really shouldn't last to long… So I guess I just have to listen to him chew me out for a bit and then-...?!"

At that moment, from the command tent there came a booming announcement which sounded to be coming from over a radio.

" _Capitain Takamachi! We found a girl out in an alleyway near the mall. She's covered in bruises and what seem to be electrical burns, and she has note on her saying 'I am the one who bombed the shit out of the mall and owe… Kamijou Touka money to repay for her groceries.'"_

After that announcement, the angry and annoyed voice of Takamachi Shiro came over the intercom.

"Shirai-kun… Could you please come to the command tent? I believe we have things to discuss."

Kuroko dumbfoundedly looked back towards Harlaown, who had disappeared, leaving her empty can of sweetened green tea on the bench. The Judgement agent looked up toward the ceiling of the mall as a single tear began to drift down his face.

 _Gods damn you Makoto…_

* * *

As he was walking down the street, Makoto had to quickly suppress the urge to sneeze, causing him to fidget on the spot. This was noticed by the person he was with, who annoyingly commented on it.

"Oh are you getting sick now? Isn't that just great? How about you sneeze directly on me next time so that I can catch the cold instantly and miss out on the last days of school before summer break!?"

Makoto looked over at the person he was walking with, who he looked at with a mixture of annoyance and pity, due to their current state. He let out a sigh and shook his head, not really knowing how to respond.

"Perhaps you should calm down a little bit? You managed to survive what basically amounts to a bomb, and here you are throwing a temper tantrum. You should really be more cheerful."

Even as he said that, Makoto looked over at his companion and realized that there was no way they could be very cheerful at that moment.

Kamijou Touka was covered completely down her front by the silvery tungsten that had been the main agent of the bombs. Somehow, after the high schoolers power reacted with the power that had been controlling said agent it had reverted back to some form of paint. This had resulted in the entire radius of the explosion to be covered in tungsten, while those who had been behind Kamijou had been protected by said effect.

Kamijou furiously glared at Makoto from behind her half silvered face, looking as if she was going to strangle the Level 5 at a moment's notice.

"Ah yes… I really should be more cheerful shouldn't I? I mean… What in the world do I have to be sad about? It's not like I blew all my week's allowance on groceries and clothes, only to have them torn apart in an explosion! It's not like I'm covered in head to toe in some strange silver shit that won't come off! It's not like I'm being followed around by some annoying as fuck chibi who's telling me that I should be cheerful!"

Makoto could see the high school girl's face getting redder and redder with each point, to a stage where he thought that the girl would have an outright heart attack at this pace. He held up his hands in a non threatening manner in an attempt to calm the girl.

"Sorry about following you around and all, but that explosion was much like a DIME, and even surviving the initial explosion could leave you with some nasty side effects. I'm just keeping an eye on you just in case, as a thank you."

Kamijou, either not understanding or not caring, seemed to ignore Makoto's explanation and began to walk faster than the level 5 storming out of the street they were on and onto the ran parallel to the artificial river running through the city. As she did this she continued to rub all the silver covered parts of her body vigorously, murmuring to herself as she did so.

"God damn idiotic… stupid… Just plain up horrible day! Honestly… I can't see how in the world this day could get any worse!"

At that moment the girl's stomach let out a loud and painful sounding gurgle, causing Kamijou to grip her stomach and blush in embarrassment and rage. She briefly collapsed to the ground and descended into a cursing storm.

Makoto watched this happen and looked away from the high schooler for a few moments as he did not care about what was going on with Kamijou. After a few moments however, Makoto had an idea that caused him to grin and turn to look at the girl.

"Hey… Are you hungry Miss 'I'm going to stick my nose in everything'?"

Kamijou turned to look at Makoto with an angry glare in her expression, clearly showing her feelings towards the situation.

"Oh I'm sorry I'm causing you distress with my stomach grumbling and all, I'll try and keep it down!"

Makoto continued to grin underneath the aggression from Kamijou, holding up a hand in a calming motion.

"Come on now… I'm just trying to be nice here. I was just about to offer to buy you dinner, but I guess that-...?"

Before he could finish speaking Kamijou was staring down the boy maybe a few centimeters away from his face. She was clearly not believing what Makoto was saying, but there was a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes as she looked at the Level 5.

"Now I know that this isn't going to come without out some sort of catch… So I'll tell you right now… If you have any sort of crazy request I will just beat the shit out of you and leave."

Makoto smiled at Kamijou, spreading his arms apart in a welcoming gesture.

"Well isn't that perfect… Because you see, the catch to me buying you dinner is that you have to fight me and win. If you can do that then I will treat you to anything you want."

Kamijou looked at Makoto, stunned for a few moments, before turning away from the Level 5 to sigh and continue to walk away.

"I definitely know your lying at this point. After all the times I've managed to fend off your attacks there would be no way that you would challenge me to that sort of battle."

Makoto had an offended expression on his face as he ran up and stood in front of Kamijou, blocking her from running off.

"Now hold on there! I'm not one to go around lying to people for no reason, and I would also like to point out that all you've done is defend yourself against my attacks, you've never actually fought with me properly."

Kamijou looked down at Makoto with a worried expression looking around in an attempt not make eye contact with the Level 5.

"W-Well… The problem is now… that I'm way too hungry… Yeah that's it! I haven't really eaten anything today and that will just make me weak, to weak to do anything against you!"

Makoto grinned up at Kamijou.

"That'll only make you fight harder won't it? If you don't have any money left over from your allowance, then what in the world are you going to do for dinner?"

Kamijou let out a loud sigh.

"Come on now… Can't you just pay for dinner like a decent human being and help me out. I promise that I won't order to much!"

Makoto grimaced.

"Fine… How about this? The time limit is one minute. For you to win you have just land one punch on me, and for me to win I have to keep you away for that same minute. How does that sound for our battle?"

Kamijou opened her mouth to respond, but her stomach let out a loud gurgle, which caused her to grip her stomach. She looked back up at Makoto with an angry grimace, not saying anything else.

Makoto walked down the the grass by the riverside and waited for Kamijou to decide to come down and join him. While he was waiting he did some basic stretches to prepare himself. Once he was pretty much done with that, Makoto finally heard Kamijou behind him.

"I'll… I'll do this Chibiribiri… But I got one change I want to make. This has to be at least 3 minutes!"

Makoto turned to look at Kamijou with a sneer on his face.

"I'll give you at least 2 minutes and that's it! Don't want to make it to easy for you now!"

Kamijou grimaced at this and began to shake her fist at Makoto while she stretched out, clearly prepared to continue with what was about to happen.

"Your talking like every time I beat you was fucking easy! I was so close to either dying to your fucking electricity or almost knocking myself while trying to dodge!"

Makoto smiled over at the high schooler, flexing his own hands in preparation for what was about to happen.

"That is entirely your fault… And don't expect any mercy from me if you mess up either! If I see a chance to take you out, I'm going to do it with as much force as possible!"

Kamijou grimaced in the face of being told that she might be almost killed in the middle of what was supposed to be a friendly duel, but she remained silent as she continued to mentally prepare herself for the battle that would occur.

There was a silence between the two in the early evening sky, Kamijou nervously twitching in anticipation, and Makoto grinning and flexing his hand as he began to make the necessary calculations in his mind.

At most 5 or 6 seconds of silence passed between the two, yet both seemed to perceive it as an eternity.

That silent eternity finally ended when there was the sound of sparking electricity, and the sight of Makoto pointing his hand toward Kamijou, his hair alight with bluish white electricity.

The lance of energy flew directly towards Kamijou, barely giving the girl enough time to react, much less dodge. Yet Kamijou was able to dodge, against all odds. The girl hurled herself to the side of the lance of electricity, tucking and rolling before getting into a crouching position.

Kamijou did not have much time to relax, however, as once she got settled she saw another lance of blue electricity flying towards her. She yanked her head aside at the last second as the electricity flew past her, burning off a few strands of her hair.

Makoto was not going to let her continue with this dodging, and he sent the largest lance of electricity barreling towards Kamijou.

The girl grimaced as she saw the electricity rushing toward her vulnerable position, and she quickly raised her left hand in front of her face to shield herself.

There was a strange sound as the electricity struck Kamijou's right hand, and the lance of electricity seemed to disperse harmlessly around her, disappearing during the next second.

Makoto looked over at Kamijou with a grin on his face, enjoying the feeling of satisfaction he felt when looking on her.

"Wow… Perhaps you should have done that from the beginning. With a power such as your's you could have easily… What do you actually do with the electricity that I throw at you? Do you… absorb it? Ground it? Convert it directly to heat energy? If you say you destroy it then I'm going to have to-...!?"

Kamijou looked up at Makoto with a grimace on her face, shaking her left fist at the Level 5 as she stood to her feet.

"You know just as well as I do that I have no idea what I do with that electricity! And you should also know that I would prefer dodging your bullshit since if I fuck up I'll probably be fried to death!"

Makoto yawned in disinterest, which of course drove Kamijou into a further fit of anger. Before she could respond, Makoto took the initiative.

"You do realize that you have maybe… I don't know… 90 seconds left? You had best get a move on if you want to get that dinner."

Kamijou grimaced at Makoto, clearly wanting to say something in retort but focusing on the task at hand. It seemed to Makoto that she seemed to briefly consider what she was going to do before finally looking like she was going to finally fight him.

Upon readying herself, Kamijou began charging toward Makota over the open field.

… _I forgot that she doesn't even understand the word subtlety when it comes to combat… I had thought that I could have pelted her with a few more bolts before busting this out, but I guess those were useless anyway._

Grinning to himself again, Makoto held his hand out, electricity coursing throughout his entire body. Kamijou did not seem phased by that at all, raising her left hand up in a defensive posture, prepared to intercept any electricity.

As his grin turned into a true, sadistic smile, Makoto directed all of the electricity surging through his body into the ground, each little tendril of power serving as a extension of his consciousness. As he found all that he needed in the ground beneath his feet, he drew it to the surface.

From the ground beneath his feet, a flow of magnetically charged iron sand burst through the soil, flying through the air towards Makoto's open hand. He made a fist around the lump of sand, creating a current through it that would shape it into what he desired.

With a single grand brandish of his new weapon, Makoto pointed the black whirling sword towards Kamijou.

The girl skidded to a stop, almost falling over in her attempt. She looked at the sword with a look of pure terror on her face, a look that she also directed at Makoto.

"H-Hold on now! Your going to be using that!? You're going to kill me with that thing!"

Makoto continued to brandish his black sword, smiling sadistically at Kamijou as he began to walk back and forth.

"I'm not going to attempt to kill you. You are the one who has to beat me in the… 70 seconds you have left. I'm supposed to stop you by any means necessary… and if you happen to get hurt that's no concern of mine."

Kamijou looked down at the sword and grimaced, clearly considering whether or not to keep going along with this entire plan. A painful gurgle in her stomach caused her to rethink that consideration.

The Level 0 began to circle around Makoto, and Makoto in turn began to move in the opposite motion to Kamijou, not wanting to present a flank to her.

They did this for a 10 more seconds, bringing down the amount of time that Kamijou had to the original 1 minute that Makoto had offered to the Level 0.

After those 10 seconds, Kamijou finally steeled herself and began to charge towards Makoto again, using the same strategy that she had used before. Makoto could only grin in anticipation.

Makoto swung his sword high, aiming for Kamijou's head without a care for the consequences. He proved to slow, as Kamijou dove under the whirling mass of black death.

The Level 5 next swung his blade towards the girl's legs, but again he missed when Kamijou jumped above the blade, causing her to land within striking distance of Makoto.

Makoto was not going to get punched without putting up a fight, and so stabbed the blade downwards toward the crouching Kamijou.

Kamijou responded by raising her left hand up to block the blade, though the look on her face said that she did not like the idea of touching the whirling mass of black sand.

The contact between Makoto's sword and Kamijou's hand was accompanied by the same strange sound as before, and as Makoto plunged it down there was an explosion of sand and dust in between the two.

Makoto grimaced and jumped back from the dust, getting well out of the range of the billowing plume of iron before it covered him or he breathed it in.

Kamijou was not so lucky.

The girl emerged from the cloud of dust, coughing and waving her hands around to clear the air. She was now covered, in addition to the silvery coating of tungsten, with a black iron dust. Once she had regained her breath, Kamijou looked down at herself before looking back up at Makoto, clearly pissed off.

"You son of a-...!? I was just about clean! Do you have to continue to ruin my day at every opportunity you get?!"

Makoto, for the most part, ignored the girl, looking instead to the considerably smaller mass of iron sand that he was now controlling. The mass had decreased in size by at least 60 to 70 percent, the remaining amount barely enough to form a dagger, much less the sword he had been wielding.

The Level 5 looked out across the riverside, at the cloud of iron dust that was slowly falling down upon the two. He reached out with his other hand sending out an electrical charge through the air, attempting to regather all the floating bits of unrefined metal.

Again the sound of Kamijou's left hand canceling out his power was heard, though this time the girl did not even have it raised. In fact she jumped a bit as if stung be an insect, looking over at Makoto with increased hatred.

"Are you just fucking with me now?! You're the one who wanted this, so the least you could do is take it seriously!"

Makoto returned Kamijou's glare of hatred with one of his own, shaking his head as he pointed accusingly at the girl's left hand.

"I'll start taking this seriously once you tell me what the hell your esper power is! Everytime I fight you… It's always the same! Whenever I send any of my electricity towards that hand… I always feel it just disappear when it comes into contact with it! I never feel it with the rest of your body, just your left arm! What the hell kind of power are you wielding?!"

Kamijou was slightly taken aback by Makoto's accusations, looking slightly confused for a few moments. She slowly looked down at her left hand, and her countenance fell, a frown slowly forming on her face.

"..."

Makoto reacted to the silence with another angry outburst.

"Oh staying silent now are you!? Not wanting to give away the secret to your bullshit?! I've seen plenty of powers before, and believe me, yours isn't normal even by Academy City standards! What in the world is it!?"

Kamijou looked up at Makoto, her face a look of disdain for the situation, before crushing her left hand into a fist, and looking at Makoto with a resolute expression.

"I don't know."

Makoto stared blankly at Kamijou for a few moments before bursting out laughing.

"You don't know?! How in the world could you have a power that can negate a Level 5's attacks and not know what it is?! Do you think that I'm stupid or something?!"

Kamijou grinned over at Makoto.

"Why yes… Yes I do think you are quite stupid… Though that doesn't change the fact that I don't know anything about my power really. Besides… Should you really be shooting the shit with me? I still have some time left."

Makoto sneered at Kamijou.

"Oh come on! You have at best 5 seconds to beat me, and you don't have-..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Makoto felt something hit him in the side of the head, and he fell into unconsciousness.


	12. A Certain Mysterious Level Upper-Part 1

_**Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**_

* * *

"... And thus, after many arduous hours of researching combined with much walking, climbing, and general wandering around the city, I have disapproved the rumors that the walls of Academy change their positions on a daily basis."

… _You know… Something like those massive walls moving every day would be quite the discernable thing. Most people would just accept that the walls not moving as proof that they don't, but then again Saten is not like most people._

Kuroko indulged himself in a small personal grin as he looked over at Saten, who had just finished regaling Kuroko about the latest urban myth he had been looking into.

"That is… It was quite the interesting week you've had Ruriko-san, if not a bit taxing on your body from the sound of it. Tell me… What in the world did you actually do with your findings?"

Saten looked slightly proud to be answering the question, though Kuroko did detect that the boy had a slight crestfallen attitude when recalling the info.

"I of course made a post on the message board that was raving about the urban myth last week… And of course, when I posted my findings and the evidence… I barely got any views on it…"

Kuroko put on a understanding look as Saten trailed off, and then turned to look over at Tomohisa, who was sitting next to Saten in the booth. Tomohisa, who had seemingly checked out of Saten's explanation, was busy playing some game on his phone.

"So… Kaname-san? Did anything strange happen to you this week while I was indisposed? I had hoped to speak with you earlier in the week, but I really never got the chance."

Tomohisa quickly looked up from his phone in surprise, clearly not expecting to be called upon to participate in the conversation. He quickly stored his phone away, and tried his best to look like he had been paying attention all the time.

"A-Anything strange Shirai-san? … Not that I could think of… Without you there not much interesting things seem to happen. Who would have thought that without the best officer the amount of crazy things going on would have gone down?"

Kuroko let out a small chuckle, which managed to pull one out of Tomohisa as well.

"Thankfully strangeness doesn't seem to follow me around, as my week also hasn't been that eventful either. Whether that has been my own personal luck or the presence of my constant companion, I don't really know."

"... Go fuck yourself Kuroko."

From the seat next to him, Makoto scowled with his arms crossed across his chest. It was an expression of annoyance that was enhanced by the slowly disappearing black eye on his face.

Kuroko grinned and shrugged over at Makoto.

"I would very much like to go somewhere other than where you are Aniki, but unfortunately…"

Kuroko held up his hand, and on his wrist was a thin black bracelet.

"If we were to move more than 50 meters apart, we are both going to be put under house arrest."

Makoto continued to scowl at Kuroko, but then turned his attention down toward the similar thin black bracelet on his own wrist.

Saten looked between the two high level espers, taking very careful attention to focus on the bracelets that they were wearing.

"... Do you guys know how long you are going to have to wear those things? I mean… Is it like a permanent thing, or…?"

Kuroko shook his head at the trailing off Saten and began gesturing at the bracelet on his own hand.

"No this isn't permanent thankfully. As long as we remain within 50 meters of each other at all times for another day, and not cause any strange incidents in the same amount of time, then we will be freed from this."

Saten looked slightly disappointed at this, but before he could voice his concerns, Tomohisa took the attention away from him.

"How has life been being so close to Misaka-san for so long? I know you two are roommates but I used to get the feeling that you two just did your own thing most of the time."

Kuroko began to think for a moment, ignoring the glare that he was receiving from the Level 5 next to him.

"... It's not all that bad actually. Me and Aniki do usually hang out with each other when we have a bit of free time, so really this is just a forced extension of that. Aniki really isn't that bad of a person when he is in control of his senses, and usually when he is with me he is well behaved."

Makoto said nothing in response to this, but he remained his usual moody self as he sat at the table.

The conversation afterwards descended down into pointless banter, utterly uninteresting to anyone who might have been listening in. This uninteresting chatter was interrupted by the arrival of the waitress to the table.

"I've got… One number 4 set, the potato gratin?"

Tomohisa raised his hand.

"That is mine."

The waitress slid the plate of potato and cheese over to Tomohisa, who immediately said thanks and began to dig in.

"Next is… The curry rice set?"

Saten shot his hand up, his mouth already watering in anticipation. The waitress placed the plate in front of the boy, and he began to dig in without even giving thanks.

"Then… the next one is the hamburger set with extra fries?"

Kuroko lazily shot his hand up and accepted the plate from the waitress placing it down in front of himself.

"And I guess that would leave the beef stew set and the hamburger set for you then?"

Makoto didn't say anything to the waitress as the food was placed in front of him, though before he began to eat he gave a quiet thanks.

The waitress bowed to the four boys and went back to work with not even a word, leaving the boys to eat in relative quiet.

Saten was, of course, the first to break the silence.

"So… I've been wondering this but… Have you guys heard of the Level Upper?"

Kuroko raised an eyebrow in a mixture of confusion and interest, setting his fork down for a moment between bites.

"The Level Upper…? What in the world is that?"

Saten's face broke into a huge grin as he whipped out his phone, and with a few taps on the screen, he brought up a forum post that he proudly displayed to the other 3 boys.

Tomohisa leaned in to look at the post and even began to read it aloud.

"... The way to increase your power without training, painful tests, or toxic medication… Go from level 0 to level 4 in an instant…. These are some…"

As Tomohisa's voice trailed off, Makoto stepped up to speak what everyone was thinking.

"This is bullshit, Saten."

Saten scowled over at Makoto and shook his head in disappointment.

"Well Chibi-san, I'm not surprised you think that. To you, if something as amazing as this actually existed then your position as a Level 5 would be threatened, wouldn't it?"

Makoto shot a scowl back at Saten, but before he could say anything, Kuroko put a hand in between the two in order to calm the situation slightly.

"Ruriko-san… Do any of those posts actually say what Level Upper is? As in what sort of item it actually is?"

Saten looked slightly surprised by the question, but he almost instantly began to look through the relevant posts. After a few moments Saten looked back up with a look of failure.

"Sorry Shirai-san… but it seems that no one has posted any specifics about what this Level Upper is. There are plenty of posts about people supposedly using it, or people looking to buy it, but nothing about what it is."

Kuroko let out a sigh of disappointment.

 _Of course no one would post what the thing is. My life could never be that easy._

Tomohisa, picking up on his partners mood, tilted his head in confusion.

"Why are you so interested in Level Upper? You're already a level 4, so I doubt you would really want to use it… Unless…"

Kuroko waved away the suspicious look he was receiving from Tomohisa.

"No, No Tomohisa. I don't want to use Level Upper for myself, but I am actually looking into it for n investigation."

Makoto and Saten both tilted their heads in confusion due to Kuroko's response, while Tomohisa was the only one to put their confusion into words.

"But aren't you… supervising Misaka-san this week? How are you able to work on an investigation while you are doing that?"

Kuroko frowned as he thought back to the red angry face of his superior, Takamachi Shiro, when he had 'assigned' Kuroko the case.

Shaking the image from his head, Kuroko' natural grin returned.

"Oh it's not really that much work that it would interfere with my normal life. In fact it's a lot like homework than anything else."

Saten, who had lost interest in the conversation and had gone back to eating, looked over at Kuroko between bites of curry.

"So… What is the investigation about? Can you not tell us or is there some other reason you haven't told us yet?"

Kuroko grinned over at Saten, making sure to hide his slowly growing annoyance.

"Oh I was just about to get to that Ruriko-san, though I doubt you would find it interesting. The investigation that I am assisting in is a result of several strange incidents that have been happening lately. Incidents where the main cause was an esper who exhibited a power far greater than their reported level."

Everyone else at the table stopped eating to turn and look at Kuroko in various levels of confusion and amazement.

Tomohisa began to rub his chin in a quizzical manner.

"I can see now why you are so interested in Level Upper Shirai-san… But I don't think that this… cheat item is really your key to your investigation. There has to be a better explanation for this right?"

Saten turned an annoyed look towards Tomohisa.

"But what better explanation could there be Tomo-chan? After all, the all mighty System Scan occurred several weeks ago, and everyone and their power levels were documented, right?"

Tomohisa returned an equally annoyed look to Saten, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Well… The espers in question could have dodged the system scan for some reason Saten. All they would have to do is call in sick for that day and then put the scan off for a couple of days in order to cause the incident."

Kuroko nodded in agreement with Tomohisa's explanation.

"That would indeed be a very reasonable answer to the investigation Kaname-san… If many of the espers in question didn't have their scans."

Tomohisa looked over at Kuroko with an intense crestfallen look.

"Are you serious?"

Kuroko continued to grin in the semi sad, semi joking manner he always did.

"There are a few outliers that have been taken out of consideration, but a majority of the espers that are the focus of the incident all had their levels taken in the most recent System Scan. And all of the incidents that occured happened after the System Scan."

Both Tomohisa and Saten leaned back in their seats in order to properly ponder the situation before them. Saten was the first to offer another solution.

"What if the espers simply found a way to boost their power levels after the system scan? They could have just trained a lot in the time between the system scan and their incident."

Kuroko looked at Saten with a slightly confused look in his eyes.

"Ruriko-san… How easy do you think it is to go up one or two levels in a couple of days? Aniki here had to spend a whole two years on the transition between level 3 and 4, and that literally almost killed him. Also one of the first things done to the espers after their respective incidents was a rescan of their powers. The results were that they had remained at the same level."

As Saten shirked away in disappointment, Tomohisa took a crack at the problem.

"So… If the espers in question exhibited powers higher than what their scanned level was, and the post incident scan revealed that they hadn't had their level changed… Perhaps there were other espers assisting the ones involved in the incidents? They could have been manipulating their powers in a way to make it seem like the perp was the one using the power."

Kuroko put a moment of thought into a counter for the argument, but a counter he did find.

"While that is a reasonable explanation Kaname-san, it does beg the question as to why the perp and the unknown esper would go to all the trouble of making the perp seem like they were the one with the higher power level? It would probably be far easier for the unknown esper to be the one doing whatever it is the perp was doing."

Tomohisa nodded in agreement with Kuroko's counter, and briefly began to think about the problem again. Saten, having come up with another explanation, again through his hat in the ring.

"What about that one thing that happens when an esper gets seriously stressed? You the… the…"

Makoto, who had previously been uninterested in the conversation, threw Saten a bone.

"Sudden Level Up… Correct?"

Saten nodded in agreement, not even caring that it was Makoto who he was accepting help from.

"That's it, Sudden Level Up! Doesn't that also fit the M.O. of what's going on? The esper would have a sudden increase in power, but then they would have an equal decrease in power after the effect of Sudden Level Up."

Kuroko again looked at Saten with a look of confusion, but then came to a sudden realization.

"Ruriko-san… You really don't pay attention during your esper study classses… Do you?"

Saten looked suddenly alarmed and embarrassed, scowling over at Kuroko.

"What's that supposed to mean?! Whether or not I pay attention in a class that has completely nothing to do with me, how in the world is that reflected in my answers?!"

Kuroko let out a small chuckle towards the angry Level 0.

"There was the your earlier comment about how easy it was to raise one or multiple levels in a few week, but there is also the comment that Sudden Level Up could so easily be induced. Sudden Level Up does not occur simply under a period of stress. Sudden Level Up occurs under periods of mortal peril, such as getting stabbed or suffocated, or something of that nature."

Saten's face went from angered annoyance to a disgusted wince, and his hand went automatically to his side.

"That… actually makes a lot of sense… Hold on a second! If that's the case then why didn't I experience Sudden Level Up when I got stabbed?! I didn't feel any different when I almost got killed!"

Kuroko put on a cheeky grin as he shrugged at Saten.

"Well there are a number of reasons that you didn't feel any different Ruriko-san, key among them being the fact that you passed out instantly. But the most insulting one I can think to throw at you currently is that your power level is actually so low that even Sudden Level Up won't affect your Level."

Saten grimaced over at Kuroko, but said nothing in retort. Kuroko expression returned to its usual jovial grin.

"But, even saying that, Ruriko-san, you have given the answer that the higher ups believe to be the main point of the investigation."

Everyone at the table looked slightly shocked at that, none more so than Saten. Kuroko briefly took great satisfaction in those looks of shock before continuing.

"Yes… The higher ups think that the key to all of this might be something related to Sudden Level Up, that maybe it is some sort of item or experiment that can manipulate it."

Tomohisa began to slowly fill in the blanks for what Kuroko was leaving out.

"Going on that… Then Level Upper sounds like the perfect match for the investigation. It ticks all of the things you would happen to be looking for."

Kuroko nodded in agreement.

"Yeah that's pretty much it. Though if this Level Upper is so easily publicized then I have doubts whether or not it's the thing I'm looking for. Regardless, it might be something to look into and ask about at the doctor's."

Both Saten and Tomohisa both raised eyebrows, non verbally begging Kuroko to go on.

"Me and Aniki have an appointment with a doctor who did most of the post incident medical work on the espers in question. Takamachi-san believes that there might be something that was mistakenly excluded from the medical reports, so he wants me to go and talk to them. Speaking of which… Aniki, are you almost ready to go?"

Both Saten and Tomohisa blinked in surprise and for the first time during the conversation looked down at the plates of the higher level espers, to find that they had been picked clean.

Makoto unceremoniously popped the last bit of hamburger into his mouth, putting on his usual frown as he began to stand up from the table.

"Yeah, Yeah… Though I could really go for an ice cream or something right now… We should really stop and get some."


End file.
